Magnetic confinement of massless Dirac fermions in graphene

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that inhomogeneous magnetic fields can confine massless Dirac fermions in graphene, enabling the design of mesoscopic structures like quantum dots despite Klein tunneling limitations.

Contribution

It introduces a method to confine Dirac electrons in graphene using magnetic barriers, overcoming the challenge posed by Klein tunneling.

Findings

Magnetic barriers can trap Dirac fermions in graphene.

Design of quantum dots and point contacts is possible with magnetic confinement.

Electrostatic potentials alone cannot confine Dirac electrons due to Klein tunneling.

Abstract

Due to Klein tunneling, electrostatic potentials are unable to confine Dirac electrons. We show that it is possible to confine massless Dirac fermions in a monolayer graphene sheet by inhomogeneous magnetic fields. This allows one to design mesoscopic structures in graphene by magnetic barriers, e.g. quantum dots or quantum point contacts.