Phagraphene: A Low-energy Graphene Allotrope composed of 5-6-7 Carbon Rings with Distorted Dirac Cones

Abstract

Using systematic evolutionary structure searching we propose a new carbon allotrope, phagraphene, standing for penta-hexa-hepta-graphene, because the structure is composed of 5-6-7 carbon rings. This two-dimensional (2D) carbon structure is lower in energy than most of the predicted 2D carbon allotropes due to its sp2-hybridization and density of atomic packing comparable to graphene. More interestingly, the electronic structure of phagraphene has distorted Dirac cones. The direction-dependent cones are further proved to be robust against external strain with tunable Fermi velocities.