Stabilization mechanism of edge states in graphene

It has been known that edge states of a graphite ribbon are zero-energy, localized eigen-states. We show that next nearest-neighbor hopping process decreases the energy of the edge states at zigzag edge with respect to the Fermi energy. The energy reduction of the edge states is calculated analytically by first-order perturbation theory and numerically. The resultant model is consistent with the peak of recent scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurements. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.