Rainbows reflect structure and composition of graphene like samples
DOI: 10.1063/10.0006340
Rainbows reflect structure and composition of graphene like samples lead image
The transmission of protons through graphene or other nanostructured materials creates a rainbow pattern. This pattern, which is more complicated than a meteorological rainbow, can be used to characterize graphene and graphene like materials.
Ćosić et al. demonstrated the rainbow pattern created from the scattering of protons by graphene provides compositional and structural information about the sample.
The rainbows can be divided into two groups. The outer rainbow pattern, which is generated by scattering in the vicinity of the potential maxima, gives information about the composition of the sample. The inner rainbow pattern, which is generated by scattering in the vicinity of the potential minima and saddle points, gives information about sample structure.
These two groups of rainbows do not interact, which means morphological analysis of the rainbow pattern could be used to characterize graphene like nanostructured materials.
To interpret the rainbow patterns, the authors developed a morphological method that included elements of algebraic topology, catastrophe theory, and bifurcation theory. They summarized their findings into five principles used to determine the rainbow pattern by studying the evolution of angular rainbows.
A rainbow is a structurally stable effect. The authors believe their morphological method could be applied to analyze other structurally stable patterns in nature.
“A large majority of the important physical systems are structurally stable. We are confident that our morphological analysis applies to those systems equally well,” said author Marko Ćosić. “We expect that our developed morphological method is useful in the analysis of other complex systems, such as pattern formation in biological systems or economic geography.”
Source: “Morphological study of the rainbow scattering of protons by graphene,” by M. Ćosić, M. Hadžijojić, S. Petrović, and R. Rymzhanov, Chaos (2021). The article can be accessed at https://aip.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/5.0059093 .
