Nano-Engineering Defect Structures on Graphene

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel nano-engineering approach for graphene by creating defect domains with unique ring structures, identified through density functional theory, revealing stable configurations like blisters, ridges, ribbons, and metacrystals.

Contribution

It presents a new method for nano-engineering graphene using defect domains and identifies stable structures via density functional theory.

Findings

Stable defect structures such as blisters, ridges, ribbons, and metacrystals were identified.

Defect formation barriers suggest possible synthesis through thermal restructuring.

Smallest defect structures contain as few as 16 carbon atoms.

Abstract

We present a new way of nano-engineering graphene using defect domains. These regions have ring structures that depart from the usual honeycomb lattice, though each carbon atom still has three nearest neighbors. A set of stable domain structures is identified using density functional theory (DFT), including blisters, ridges, ribbons, and metacrystals. All such structures are made solely out of carbon; the smallest encompasses just 16 atoms. Blisters, ridges and metacrystals rise up out of the sheet, while ribbons remain flat. In the vicinity of vacancies, the reaction barriers to formation are sufficiently low that such defects could be synthesized through the thermally activated restructuring of coalesced adatoms.