ETD

Archivio digitale delle tesi discusse presso l'Università di Pisa

Tesi etd-06132012-180852


Tipo di tesi
Tesi di dottorato di ricerca
Autore
PROFUMO, ROSARIO ELIO VIRGILIO
URN
etd-06132012-180852
Titolo
Interaction effects in decoupled graphene layers
Settore scientifico disciplinare
FIS/02
Corso di studi
FISICA
Relatori
tutor Prof. Fazio, Rosario
Parole chiave
  • graphene
  • decoupled layers
  • interactions
Data inizio appello
18/06/2012
Consultabilità
Completa
Riassunto
Aim of the thesis was to study the effect of interactions on
decoupled graphene layers, the main objective being
to extract quantitative results for several quantities that are object of study in
the ongoing experiments. The experimental realization of multi-layers of graphene
has been reached only recently spurring a lot of theoretical
and experimental interest.

Already analyzed theoretically for the first time in the '40,
graphene was discovered only in 2004. Band calculations predict a linear
energy dispersion, which makes it an ideal candidate to observe
relativistic-like phenomena at low energy. Moreover, the non-conventional band dispersion implies other peculiar features. Although most of these facts can be theoretically described in a non-interacting picture, the effect of interactions is relevant, as several experiments have demonstrated.

As extensively shown on single layer graphene,
interactions may play a relevant role in determining several of its properties.
The same considerations hold for graphene multilayers.
Particularly important are Coulomb interactions, whose strength in graphene
is given by the dimensionless coupling constant $\alpha_{\rm ee}$,
defined as the ratio between the Coulomb and kinetic energies,
which is approximately $\approx 2.2$. It follows that graphene and multilayer
systems are strongly interacting, the main difference being the presence in the latter ones of
inter-layer Coulomb interactions. One prominent question is: what makes
multilayers different from graphene because of such inter-layer interactions?

In the context of linear response theory, we have introduced
a multi-component random-phase approximation,
supported from the G0W approximation
which has allowed to calculate the electron self-energy.
The quasiparticle properties have been obtained from the derivatives of
the self-energy. We have shown numerical results for the renormalized
Fermi velocity as a function of the electron densities.
Furthermore, we have used the Hellman-Feynman theorem to calculate the ground-state energy,
and shown numerical results. The knowledge of the fundamental energy
at various values of electron densities has allowed us
to study the electro-chemical equilibrium problem.
After having introduced the system of the electro-chemical equilibrium equations, we have numerically solved it and furnished results for the equilibrium electronic densities on the layers as a function of an additional parameter related to the substrate.

The collective modes have been found as the zeroes of the dielectric function.
In the limit of large wavelength, we have obtained the exact dispersion of the modes
by a series expansion in the wavevector.
We have also numerically computed them at a generic wavevector, and made a
comparison with the analytical results which are valid at large wavelenght.

We have finally shown and discussed results for the spectral function,
which is directly related to the experimentally found spectra. We have numerically computed it
for various choices of parameters of the system, thus demonstrating the appearence
of the acoustic plasmaron which could then become the subject of experimental investigation.
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