Absorption spectra of graphene nanoribbons in a composite magnetic field

• Absorption spectra of graphene nanoribbons in a composite magnetic field.
• The optical absorption spectra depend sensitively on the the composite field.
• The frequency of the principal peaks increases with growing field strength.

The low-frequency optical absorption properties of graphene nanoribbons in a composite magnetic field are investigated by using the gradient approximation. The spectral function exhibits symmetric delta-function like prominent peaks structure in a uniform magnetic field, and changes to asymmetric square-root divergent peaks structure when subjecting to a composite field. These asymmetric divergent peaks can be further classified into principal and secondary peaks. The spectral intensity and frequency of the absorption peaks depend sensitively on the strength and modulation period of the composite field. The transition channels of the absorption peaks are also analyzed. There exists an optical selection rule which is caused by the orthogonal properties of the sublattice wave functions. The evolution of the spectral frequency of the absorption peaks with the field strength is explored.