Calculation of the number of atoms displaced during the irradiation of monolayer graphene

The irradiation of monolayer graphene, combined with chemical functionalization, could be an effective method for modifying its electronic structure and for achieving specific physical properties adjusted to different applications. A difficulty arising during planning and studying the irradiation in this system is that many of the models of interaction of the radiation with the substance cannot be applied to the two-dimensional structure of graphene. In particular, the mathematical expressions available to calculate the number of atoms displaced during the bombardment with particles can be applied only to 3D isotropic solids. In the present work, an alternative analytic expression is presented for the irradiation of graphene with heavy ions or with protons and other light charged particles. The expression was obtained on the basis of the classic theory of dispersion, using a Coulomb potential for the light charged particles and one of Inverse Square for heavy ions. For medium values of the energy of the incident particle a decreasing dependence of the number of displaced atoms with energy is obtained. This behavior, related with the two-dimensional structure of the target, had been observed in other authors' works using computational simulation. © 2011 Akadémiai Kiadó.