Low-energy Electron Reflectivity from Graphene: First-Principles Computations and Approximate Models

Randall Feenstra, Michael Widom
2018
A computational method is developed whereby the reflectivity of low-energy electrons from a surface can be obtained from a first-principles solution of the electronic structure of the system. The method is applied to multilayer graphene. Two bands of reflectivity minima are found, one at 0 – 8 eV and the other at 14 – 22 eV above the vacuum level. For a free-standing slab with n layers of graphene, each band contains n 1 zeroes in the reflectivity. Two additional imagepotential type states
more » ... at the ends of the graphene slab, with energies just below the vacuum level, hence producing a total of 2n states. A tight-binding model is developed, with basis functions localized in the spaces between the graphene planes (and at the ends of the slab). The spectrum of states produced by the tight-binding model is found to be in good agreement with the zeros of reflectivity (i.e. transmission resonances) of the first-principles results.
doi:10.1184/r1/6507101 fatcat:5sud4fpjuzdtpmjmmxcmrb36fy