Common-path interference and oscillatory Zener tunneling in bilayer graphene p-n junctions.

ABSTRACT: Interference and tunneling are two signature quantum effects that are often perceived as the yin and yang of quantum mechanics: a particle simultaneously propagating along several distinct classical paths versus a particle penetrating through a classically inaccessible region via a single least-action path. Here we demonstrate that the Dirac quasiparticles in graphene provide a dramatic departure from this paradigm. We show that Zener tunneling in gapped bilayer graphene, which governs transport through p-n heterojunctions, exhibits common-path interference that takes place under the tunnel barrier. Due to a symmetry peculiar to the gapped bilayer graphene bandstructure, interfering tunneling paths form conjugate pairs, giving rise to high-contrast oscillations in transmission as a functio

SUBMITTER: Nandkishore R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3161540 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature