Chiral filtering in graphene with coupled valleys

Abstract

We analyze the problem of electronic transmission through different regions of a graphene sheet that are characterized by different types of connections between the Dirac points. These valley symmetry breaking Hamiltonians might arise from electronic self-interaction mediated by the dielectric environment of distinct parts of the substrate on which the graphene sheet is placed. We show that it is possible to have situations in which we can use these regions to select or filter states of one desired chirality. © 2011 American Physical Society.