RESUMEN
The role of defect-induced zero-energy modes on charge transport in graphene is investigated using Kubo and Landauer transport calculations. By tuning the density of random distributions of monovacancies either equally populating the two sublattices or exclusively located on a single sublattice, all conduction regimes are covered from direct tunneling through evanescent modes to mesoscopic transport in bulk disordered graphene. Depending on the transport measurement geometry, defect density, and broken sublattice symmetry, the Dirac-point conductivity is either exceptionally robust against disorder (supermetallic state) or suppressed through a gap opening or by algebraic localization of zero-energy modes, whereas weak localization and the Anderson insulating regime are obtained for higher energies. These findings clarify the contribution of zero-energy modes to transport at the Dirac point, hitherto controversial.
RESUMEN
Polycrystalline graphene is a patchwork of coalescing graphene grains of varying lattice orientations and size, resulting from the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth at random nucleation sites on metallic substrates. The morphology of grain boundaries has become an important topic given its fundamental role in limiting the mobility of charge carriers in polycrystalline graphene, as compared to mechanically exfoliated samples. Here we report new insights to the current understanding of charge transport in polycrystalline geometries. We created realistic models of large CVD-grown graphene samples and then computed the corresponding charge carrier mobilities as a function of the average grain size and the coalescence quality between the grains. Our results reveal a remarkably simple scaling law for the mean free path and conductivity, correlated to atomic-scale charge density fluctuations along grain boundaries.