Symmetry Guided Band-Gap Opening via Periodic Topological Defects in Graphene
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| _version_ | 1866913113804111872 |
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| author | Garzon, D. N. Cabrera-Loor, Leonel Gliozzi, Jacopo Fronzi, Marco Stampfl, Catherine Pinto, Henry P. |
| author_facet | Garzon, D. N. Cabrera-Loor, Leonel Gliozzi, Jacopo Fronzi, Marco Stampfl, Catherine Pinto, Henry P. |
| contents | Graphene lacks an intrinsic band-gap, which limits its use in electronic applications. Here we demonstrate that periodic arrays of topological defects can open and control a band-gap in a predictable manner governed by defect spacing and lattice symmetry. Using first-principles density functional theory calculations supported by tight-binding models, we investigate graphene superlattices containing Stone-Wales and flower-like defects over a range of $N \times N$ periodicities, where $N$ determines the defect separation. We show that band-gap opening occurs only when translation symmetry is reduced in a specific way: for supercells with $N$ a multiple of three, Brillouin-zone folding brings the Dirac cones at $K$ and $K'$ to the same momentum in the reduced Brillouin zone. In particular, flower-like defect superlattices produce larger and tunable band-gaps, whose magnitude decreases systematically with increasing defect separation and approaches zero in the dilute-defect limit. These results establish a predictive framework for band-gap engineering in defect-patterned graphene and clarify the microscopic mechanism underlying gap formation in periodically reconstructed lattices. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_11183 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Symmetry Guided Band-Gap Opening via Periodic Topological Defects in Graphene Garzon, D. N. Cabrera-Loor, Leonel Gliozzi, Jacopo Fronzi, Marco Stampfl, Catherine Pinto, Henry P. Materials Science Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics Graphene lacks an intrinsic band-gap, which limits its use in electronic applications. Here we demonstrate that periodic arrays of topological defects can open and control a band-gap in a predictable manner governed by defect spacing and lattice symmetry. Using first-principles density functional theory calculations supported by tight-binding models, we investigate graphene superlattices containing Stone-Wales and flower-like defects over a range of $N \times N$ periodicities, where $N$ determines the defect separation. We show that band-gap opening occurs only when translation symmetry is reduced in a specific way: for supercells with $N$ a multiple of three, Brillouin-zone folding brings the Dirac cones at $K$ and $K'$ to the same momentum in the reduced Brillouin zone. In particular, flower-like defect superlattices produce larger and tunable band-gaps, whose magnitude decreases systematically with increasing defect separation and approaches zero in the dilute-defect limit. These results establish a predictive framework for band-gap engineering in defect-patterned graphene and clarify the microscopic mechanism underlying gap formation in periodically reconstructed lattices. |
| title | Symmetry Guided Band-Gap Opening via Periodic Topological Defects in Graphene |
| topic | Materials Science Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.11183 |