Electronic correlation effects in the response of graphene and MoS2 monolayers to the impact of highly-charged ions

TL;DR

This study uses advanced Green's function methods to analyze how electron-electron correlations affect the electronic response of graphene and MoS2 monolayers to highly-charged ion impacts, revealing material-specific differences.

Contribution

It extends previous work by incorporating electron-electron correlations using a time-linear G1-G2 scheme, showing their significant impact on MoS2 but minor effect on graphene.

Findings

Correlations significantly influence MoS2 electron dynamics.

Graphene's response remains largely unaffected by correlations.

Ultrafast charge density and potential dynamics observed near impact point.

Abstract

The interaction of highly-charged ions with monolayers of graphene and MoS2 is theoretically investigated based on nonequilibrium Green Functions (NEGF). In a recent paper [Niggas et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 086802 (2022)] dramatic differences in the response of the two materials to an impacting slow ion were reported. Here, this analysis is extended, focusing on the effect of electron-electron correlations in the monolayer on the electronic response to the ion. We apply the recently developed time-linear G1-G2 scheme [Schluenzen et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 076601 (2020)] combined with an embedding approach [Balzer et al., Phys. Rev. B 107, 155141 (2023)]. We demonstrate that, while electronic correlations have a minor effect in graphene, they significantly influence the electron dynamics in the case of MoS2. Our key results are the ultrafast dynamics of the charge density and induced electrostatic potential in the vicinity of the impact point of the ion.