Ultrafast electronic response of graphene to a strong and localized electric field
- Author(s)
- Elisabeth Gruber, Richard A. Wilhelm, Remi Petuya, Valerie Smejkal, Roland Kozubek, Anke Hierzenberger, Bernhard C. Bayer, Inigo Aldazabal, Andrey K. Kazansky, Florian Libisch, Arkady V. Krasheninnikov, Marika Schleberger, Stefan Facsko, Andrei G. Borisov, Andres Arnau, Friedrich Aumayr
- Abstract
The way conduction electrons respond to ultrafast external perturbations in low dimensional materials is at the core of the design of future devices for (opto) electronics, photodetection and spintronics. Highly charged ions provide a tool for probing the electronic response of solids to extremely strong electric fields localized down to nanometre-sized areas. With ion transmission times in the order of femtoseconds, we can directly probe the local electronic dynamics of an ultrathin foil on this timescale. Here we report on the ability of freestanding single layer graphene to provide tens of electrons for charge neutralization of a slow highly charged ion within a few femtoseconds. With values higher than 10(12) A cm(-2), the resulting local current density in graphene exceeds previously measured breakdown currents by three orders of magnitude. Surprisingly, the passing ion does not tear nanometre-sized holes into the single layer graphene. We use time-dependent density functional theory to gain insight into the multielectron dynamics.
- Organisation(s)
- Physics of Nanostructured Materials
- External organisation(s)
- Technische Universität Wien, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Donostia International Physics Centre (DIPC), Universität Duisburg-Essen, University of the Basque Country, Ikerbasque Basque Foundation for Science, Université Paris XI - Paris-Sud
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Volume
- 7
- No. of pages
- 7
- ISSN
- 2041-1723
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13948
- Publication date
- 12-2016
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 103009 Solid state physics
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Physics and Astronomy(all), Chemistry(all), Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
- Portal url
- https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/ultrafast-electronic-response-of-graphene-to-a-strong-and-localized-electric-field(c2083b13-9afe-4687-b805-a1a14eec28ab).html