Electronic structure of helicoidal graphene: massless Dirac particles on a curved surface with a screw symmetry

Abstract: Massless Dirac particles on the helicoid are theoretically investigated. With its possible application being helical graphene, we explore how the peculiarities of Dirac particles appear on the curved, screw-symmetric surface. The zweibein is used to derive the massless Dirac equation on the helicoid, as well as general curved surfaces. Bound states of massless Dirac electrons are shown to be absent on the helicoid, and then the scattering probabilities and the phase shifts on the surface are obtained from numerically calculated wave functions. We find the local density of states and the phase shifts idiosyncratic especially around the axis of the helicoid. Bound states of massive Dirac electrons on the surface are also shown to be absent as an extension of the above result on massless Dirac electrons.