Electrical dipole on gapped graphene: Bound states and atomic collapse

R. Van Pottelberge, B. Van Duppen, F. M. Peeters

Published 2018-10-19Version 1

We investigate the energy spectrum, wave functions, and local density of states of an electrical dipole placed on a sheet of gapped graphene as function of the charge strength Z{\alpha} for different sizes of the dipole and for different regularization parameters. The dipole is modeled as consisting of a positive and negative charge. Bound states are found within the gap region with some energy levels that anticross and others that cross as function of the impurity strength Z{\alpha}. The anticrossings are more pronounced and move to higher charges Z{\alpha} when the length of the dipole decreases. These energy levels turn into atomic collapse states when they enter the positive (or negative) energy continuum. A smooth transition from the single-impurity behavior to the dipole one is observed: The states diving towards the continuum in the single-impurity case are gradually replaced by a series of anticrossings that represent a continuation of the diving states in the single-impurity case. By studying the local density of states at the edge of the dipole we show how the series of anticrossings persist in the positive and negative continuum.