Control over band structure and tunneling in Bilayer Graphene induced by velocity engineering

Hosein Cheraghchi, Fatemeh Adinehvand

Published 2013-11-26Version 1

The band structure and transport properties of massive Dirac Fermions in bilayer graphene with velocity modulation in space are investigated in presence of the previously created band gap. It is pointed out that the velocity engineering is considered as a factor to control the band gap of symmetry-broken bilayer graphene. The band gap is direct and independent of velocity value if velocity modulated in two layers is set up equally. Otherwise, in the case of interlayer asymmetric velocity, not only the band gap is indirect, but also the electron-hole symmetry fails. This band gap is controllable by the ratio of the velocity modulated in the upper layer to the velocity modulated in the lower layer. In more detail, the shift of momentum from the conduction band edge to the valence band edge can be engineered by the gate bias and velocity ratio. A transfer matrix method is also elaborated to calculate four-band coherent conductance through a velocity barrier possibly subjected to a gate bias. Electronic transport depends on the ratio of velocity modulated inside the barrier to the one for surrounding regions. As a result, a quantum version of total internal reflection is observed for enough thick velocity barriers. Moreover, a transport gap originating from the applied gate bias is engineered by modulating velocity of the carriers in the upper and lower layers.