States near Dirac points of a rectangular graphene dot in a magnetic field

Abstract

In neutral graphene dots, the Fermi level coincides with the Dirac points. We have investigated in the presence of a magnetic field several unusual properties of single electron states near the Fermi level of such a rectangular-shaped graphene dot with two zigzag and two armchair edges. We find that a quasidegenerate level forms near zero energy and the number of states in this level can be tuned by the magnetic field. The wave functions of states in this level are all peaked on the zigzag edges with or without some weight inside the dot. Some of these states are magnetic field-independent surface states while the others are field-dependent. We have found a scaling result from which the number of magnetic field-dependent states of large dots can be inferred from those of smaller dots.