UC Berkeley

We investigate the electromigration forces for weakly bonded adsorbates on graphene by using density-functional based calculations. We find that the nature of electromigration forces on an adsorbate critically depends on the energy level alignment between the adsorbate state and the Fermi level of the graphene. For a resonant adsorbate, whose frontier orbitals lie close to the Fermi level, the electromigration force is dominated by the electron wind force that is strongly enhanced along the electron flow direction, irrespective of the sign of the adsorbate charge. For a nonresonant adsorbate, the electromigration force is essentially the direct force that depends on the adsorbate charge. We also show that the magnitude of electromigration forces can be continuously tunable through electrostatic gating for resonant adsorbates. Our results provide new insight for understanding and controlling how nanoscale objects behave in or on host materials.