Abstract
At low energy, electrons in doped graphene sheets behave like massless Dirac fermions with a Fermi velocity, which does not depend on carrier density. Here we show that modulating a two-dimensional electron gas with a long-wavelength periodic potential with honeycomb symmetry can lead to the creation of isolated massless Dirac points with tunable Fermi velocity. We provide detailed theoretical estimates to realize such artificial graphenelike system and discuss an experimental realization in a modulation-doped GaAs quantum well. Ultrahigh-mobility electrons with linearly dispersing bands might open new venues for the studies of Dirac-fermion physics in semiconductors.
- Received 27 April 2009
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.79.241406
©2009 American Physical Society
Synopsis
Artificial graphene
Published 6 July 2009
Can a patterned semiconducting heterostructure yield a better “graphene”?
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