Electric-field-tunable electronic properties of graphene quantum dots

The tight-binding method is employed to investigate the electronic properties of a square graphene quantum dot subject to an in-plane electric field (F). The electronic properties are strongly modified by tuning the field strength or altering the field direction. F will change state energies, alter energy gaps, and induce energy gap modulations. State energies show oscillatory behavior with the change of the field strength. The oscillating amplitude and period are further modulated by the change of the field direction. The field-orientation-dependent electronic properties originate in the geometrical anisotropy of the square graphene quantum dot. Moreover, the density of states (DOS), exhibiting many discrete peaks, directly reveals the characteristic of the electric-field-tunable electronic properties. The number and frequencies of DOS peaks are significantly dependent on the field strength and direction. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.