Defect induced Anderson localization and magnetization in graphene quantum dots

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the effects of atomic defect related short-range disorders and electron-electron interactions on Anderson type localization and the magnetic properties of hexagonal armchair graphene quantum dots using an extended mean-field Hubbard model and wave packet dynamics for the calculation of localization lengths. We observe that randomly distributed defects with concentrations between 1 and 5% of the total number of atoms leads to localization alongside magnetic puddle-like structures. Although the localization lengths are not affected by interactions, staggered magnetism and localization are found to be enhanced if the defects are distributed unevenly between the sublattices of the honeycomb lattice.