Gate-Tunable Resonance State and Screening Effects for Proton-Like Atomic Charge in Graphene

Nano Lett. 2022 Nov 9;22(21):8422-8429. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c02235. Epub 2022 Oct 10.

Abstract

The ability to create a robust and well-defined artificial atomic charge in graphene and understand its carrier-dependent electronic properties represents an important goal toward the development of graphene-based quantum devices. Herein, we devise a new pathway toward the atomically precise embodiment of point charges into a graphene lattice by posterior (N) ion implantation into a back-gated graphene device. The N dopant behaves as an in-plane proton-like charge manifested by formation of the characteristic resonance state in the conduction band. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurements at varied charge carrier densities reveal a giant energetic renormalization of the resonance state up to 220 meV with respect to the Dirac point, accompanied by the observation of gate-tunable long-range screening effects close to individual N dopants. Joint density functional theory and tight-binding calculations with modified perturbation potential corroborate experimental findings and highlight the short-range character of N-induced perturbation.

Keywords: back-gated device; graphene; impurity; ion implantation; nitrogen doping.