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Nanomaterials for Security pp 3–17Cite as

Atomic Collapse in Graphene

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Abstract

When the charge Z of an atom exceeds the critical value of 170, it will undergo a process called atomic collapse which triggers the spontaneous creation of electron-positron pairs. The high charge requirements have prevented the observation of this phenomenon with real atomic nuclei. However, thanks to the relativistic nature of the carriers in graphene, the same physics is accessible at a much lower scale. The atomic collapse analogue in graphene is realized using artificial nuclei which can be created via the deposition of impurities on the surface of graphene or using charged vacancies. These supercritically charged artificial nuclei trap electrons in a sequence of quasi-bound states which can be observed experimentally as resonances in the local density of states.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the European Science Foundation (ESF) under the EUROCORES Program EuroGRAPHENE within the project CONGRAN, the Flemish Science Foundation (FWO-Vl) and the Methusalem Funding of the Flemish Government. We acknowledge the very fruitful collaboration with the Eva Andrei group at Rutgers University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departement Fysica, Universiteit Antwerpen, Groenenborgerlaan 171, B-2020, Antwerpen, Belgium

    D. Moldovan & F. M. Peeters

Authors
  1. D. Moldovan
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  2. F. M. Peeters
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to F. M. Peeters .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Theoretical Physics, J. Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Janez Bonča

  2. Nat. Ukrainian Academy of Science, Bogolyubov Inst. f. Theor. Physics Nat. Ukrainian Academy of Science, Kiev, Ukraine

    Sergei Kruchinin

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Moldovan, D., Peeters, F.M. (2016). Atomic Collapse in Graphene. In: Bonča, J., Kruchinin, S. (eds) Nanomaterials for Security. NATO Science for Peace and Security Series A: Chemistry and Biology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7593-9_1

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