Electronic structure of gated graphene and graphene ribbons

We study the electronic structure of gated graphene sheets. We consider both infinite graphene and finite width ribbons. The effect of Coulomb interactions between the electrically injected carriers and the coupling to the external gate are computed self-consistently in the Hartree approximation. We compute the average density of extra carriers n2D, the number of occupied subbands, and the density profiles as a function of the gate potential Vg. We discuss quantum corrections to the classical capacitance and we calculate the threshold Vg above which semiconducting armchair ribbons conduct. We find that the ideal conductance of perfectly transmitting wide ribbons is proportional to the square root of the gate voltage.

This work has been financially supported by MEC-Spain (Grants Nos. FIS200402356, MAT2005-07369-C03-01, MAT2006-03471 and the Ramon y Cajal Program), and by Generalitat Valenciana ACOMP07/054. This work has been partly funded by FEDER funds.