Absence of a metallic phase in charge-neutral graphene with a random gap
Abstract
It is known that fluctuations in the electrostatic potential allow for metallic conduction (nonzero conductivity in the limit of an infinite system) if the carriers form a single species of massless two-dimensional Dirac fermions. A nonzero uniform mass M opens up an excitation gap, localizing all states at the Dirac point of charge neutrality. Here we investigate numerically whether fluctuations δ M M ≠ 0 in the mass can have a similar effect as potential fluctuations, allowing for metallic conduction at the Dirac point. Our negative conclusion confirms earlier expectations, but does not support the recently predicted metallic phase in a random-gap model of graphene.
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