First Principle DFT Study of Electric Field Effects on the Characteristics of Bilayer Graphene

First principle density functional theory methods, local density and Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof generalized gradient approximations with Goedecker pseudopotential (LDA-G & PBE-G), are used to study the electric field effects on the binding energy and atomic charges of bilayer graphene (BLG) at the Γ point of the Brillouin zone based on two types of unit cells (α and β) containing nC=8–32 carbon atoms. Results show that application of electric fields of 4–24 V/nm strengths reduces the binding energies and induces charge transfer between the two layers. The transferred charge increases almost linearly with the strength of the electric field for all sizes of the two types of unit cells. Furthermore, the charge transfer calculated with the α-type unit cells is more sensitive to the electric field strength. The calculated field-dependent contour plots of the differential charge densities of the two layers show details of charge density redistribution under the influence of the electric field.