Enhanced robustness of zero-line modes in graphene via magnetic field
Ke Wang1,2, Tao Hou1,2, Yafei Ren1,2, Zhenhua Qiao1,2()
1. ICQD, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, and Synergetic Innovation Centre of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China 2. CAS Key Laboratory of Strongly-Coupled Quantum Matter Physics and Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
We systematically studied the influence of magnetic field on zero-line modes (ZLMs) in graphene and demonstrated the physical origin of their enhanced robustness by employing nonequilibrium Green’s functions and the Landauer–Büttiker formula. We found that a perpendicular magnetic field can separate the wavefunctions of the counter-propagating kink states into opposite directions. Specifically, the separation vanishes at the charge neutrality point and increases as the Fermi level deviates from the charge neutrality point and can reach a magnitude comparable to the wavefunction spread at a moderate field strength. Such spatial separation of oppositely propagating ZLMs effectively suppresses backscattering and is more significant under zigzag boundary condition than under armchair boundary condition. Moreover, the presence of magnetic field enlarges the bulk gap and suppresses the bound states, thereby further reducing the scattering. These mechanisms effectively increase the mean free paths of the ZLMs to approximately 1 μm in the presence of a disorder.
. [J]. Frontiers of Physics, 2019, 14(2): 23501.
Ke Wang, Tao Hou, Yafei Ren, Zhenhua Qiao. Enhanced robustness of zero-line modes in graphene via magnetic field. Front. Phys. , 2019, 14(2): 23501.
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