Chiral tunnelling and the Klein paradox in graphene

By M. Katsnelson, K. Novoselov, A.K. Geim. 2006

3,276 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The so-called Klein paradox—unimpeded penetration of relativistic particles through high and wide potential barriers—is one of the most exotic and counterintuitive consequences of quantum electrodynamics. The phenomenon is discussed in many contexts in particle, nuclear and astro-physics but direct tests of the Klein paradox using elementary particles have so far proved impossible. Here we show that the effect can be tested in a conceptually simple condensed-matter experiment using electrostatic barriers in single- and bi-layer graphene. Owing to the chiral nature of their quasiparticles, quantum tunnelling in these materials becomes highly anisotropic, qualitatively different from the case of normal, non-relativistic electrons. Massless Dirac fermions in graphene allow a close realization of Klein’s gedanken experiment, whereas massive chiral fermions in bilayer graphene offer an interesting complementary system that elucidates the basic physics involved.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Materials Chemistry

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/64b1a2dbc47b1f89eb705b294ee06921ed28dadf

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

1. K. Novoselov
2. N. M. R. Peres
3. A.K. Geim
4. E. Hwang
5. Franco Nori
6. E. Rossi
7. S. Adam
8. Francisco Guinea

In Materials Chemistry

1. K. Novoselov
2. N. M. R. Peres
3. A.K. Geim
4. A. Di Bartolomeo
5. E. Hwang
6. E. Rossi
7. S. Adam
8. Francisco Guinea

Citations in the corpus

• Colloquium: Artificial gauge potentials for neutral atoms (2010, background): “This nearly complete transmission is a manifestation of the Klein paradox appearing also for electron tunneling in graphene (Katsnelson et al., 2006; Neto et al., 2009).”
• Two-Dimensional Materials from Data Filtering and Ab Initio Calculations (2013, background): “The recent explosion of scientific activity around graphene [1] has resulted in a large number of works [2–5] addressing its intriguing physical properties.”
• Imaging electrostatically confined Dirac fermions in graphene quantum dots (2016, background): “Imaging electrostatically confined Dirac fermions in graphene quantum dots Juwon Lee1*, Dillon Wong1*, Jairo Velasco Jr.1,2†, Joaquin F. Rodriguez-Nieva3, Salman Kahn1, Hsin-Zon Tsai1, Takashi Taniguchi4, Kenji Watanabe4, Alex Zettl1,5,6, Feng Wang1,5,6, Leonid S. Levitov3 and Michael F. Crommie1,5,”
• Experimental Review of Graphene (2011, background): “In the case of graphene, the chirality discussed earlier leads to a varying transmission probability de- pending on the angle of incidence to the barrier (Katsnelson et al., 2006).”
• The origins and limits of metal-graphene junction resistance. (2011, background): “In addition, although p–p′ and n–n′ interfacial potential barriers are nearly transparent due to Klein tunnellin”