Thermal rippling behavior of graphane

2012

Thermal fluctuations of single layer hydrogenated graphene (graphane) are investigated using large scale atomistic simulations. By analyzing the mean square value of the height fluctuations $$ and the height-height correlation function $H(q)$ for different system sizes and temperatures we show that hydrogenated graphene is an un-rippled system in contrast to graphene. The height fluctuations are bounded, which is confirmed by a $ H(q) $ tending to a constant in the long wavelength limit instead of showing the characteristic scaling law $ q^{4-\eta} (\eta \simeq 0.85)$ predicted by membrane theory. This unexpected behaviour persists up to temperatures of at least 900 K and is a consequence o…