Publication Date

2012

Document Type

Thesis

Committee Members

Brent Foy (Committee Member), Gregory Kozlowski (Committee Chair), Lok C. Lew Yan Voon (Advisor)

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Abstract

Graphene is a two-dimensional nanomaterial with useful and novel properties, but it is a material that does not integrate well with the current silicon microchip infrastructure. Silicene could solve this problem, as it is made of silicon yet retains the novel properties that make graphene desirable. This thesis will outline density functional calculations of a newly proposed structure involving the combination of these two materials. The structure includes silicene layered on graphene in such a manner that it composes a superlattice. It will be examined using the ab-initio density functional theory software Quantum Espresso.

This superlattice structure is proposed to have an increase in electronic transport as well as higher binding energy versus standard graphene. Examination of the proposed superlattice is accomplished by using PBE-GGA functionals versus a previous LDA methodology. In conclusion, the results confirm the pattern of increased binding energy in the superlattice as well as increased electron transport, but the amount of increase in the electron transport is not the same as the accepted results. The desirable structural effects of graphene are maintained by the data.

Page Count

77

Department or Program

Department of Physics

Year Degree Awarded

2012

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.


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