Chaotic dynamics of graphene and graphene nanoribbons

We study the chaotic dynamics of graphene structures, considering both a periodic, defect free, graphene sheet and graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) of various widths. By numerically calculating the maximum Lyapunov exponent, we quantify the chaoticity for a spectrum of energies in both systems. We find that for all cases, the chaotic strength increases with the energy density and that the onset of chaos in graphene is slow, becoming evident after more than 10⁴ natural oscillations of the system. For the GNRs, we also investigate the impact of the width and chirality (armchair or zigzag edges) on their chaotic behavior. Our results suggest that due to the free edges, the chaoticity of GNRs is stronger than the periodic graphene sheet and decreases by increasing width, tending asymptotically to the bulk value. In addition, the chaotic strength of armchair GNRs is higher than a zigzag ribbon of the same width. Furthermore, we show that the composition of ¹²C and ¹³C carbon isotopes in graphene has a minor impact on its chaotic strength.