2011/10/20 by Sampsa K. Hämäläinen, Sampsa Hämäläinen, Zhixiang Sun +6
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Carbon Nanotubes in Composites #Condensed matter physics #Density of states #Diamond and Carbon-based Materials Research #Electronic structure #Graphene #Graphene nanoribbons #Graphene research and applications #Local density of states #Materials science #Nanostructure #Nanotechnology #Physics #Quantum dot #Quantum mechanics #Quantum tunnelling #Scanning tunneling microscope #Scanning tunneling spectroscopy #Spectroscopy #Tight binding #Zigzag #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.107.236803
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 236803 (2011) · accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett
arxiv created 2011/10/20 · openalex publication_date 2011/11/30 · arxiv updated 2012/01/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Despite the enormous interest in the properties of graphene and the potential of graphene nanostructures in electronic applications, the study of quantum-confined states in atomically well-defined graphene nanostructures remains an experimental challenge. Here, we study graphene quantum dots (GQDs) with well-defined edges in the zigzag direction, grown by chemical vapor deposition on an Ir(111) substrate by low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. We measure the atomic structure and local density of states of individual GQDs as a function of their size and shape in the range from a couple of nanometers up to ca. 20 nm. The results can be quantitatively modeled by a relativistic wave equation and atomistic tight-binding calculations. The observed states are analogous to the solutions of the textbook "particle-in-a-box" problem applied to relativistic massless fermions.