English

Molecular collapse in monolayer graphene

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2019-09-04 v1

Abstract

Atomic collapse is a phenomenon inherent to relativistic quantum mechanics where electron states dive in the positron continuum for highly charged nuclei. This phenomenon was recently observed in graphene. Here we investigate a novel collapse phenomenon when multiple sub- and supercritical charges of equal strength are put close together as in a molecule. We construct a phase diagram which consists of three distinct regions: 1) subcritical, 2) frustrated atomic collapse, and 3) molecular collapse. We show that the single impurity atomic collapse resonances rearrange themselves to form molecular collapse resonances which exhibit a distinct quasi-bonding, anti-bonding and non-bonding character. Here we limit ourselves to a systems consisting of two and three charges. We show that by tuning the distance between the charges and their strength a high degree of control over the molecular collapse resonances can be achieved.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1909.00558,
  title  = {Molecular collapse in monolayer graphene},
  author = {Robbe Van Pottelberge and Dean Moldovan and S. P. Milovanovic and Francois M. Peeters},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1909.00558},
  year   = {2019}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T11:02:52.056Z