Stone–Wales defects preserve hyperuniformity in amorphous two-dimensional networks

Disordered hyperuniformity (DHU) is a recently discovered novel state of many-body systems that possesses vanishing normalized infinite-wavelength density fluctuations similar to a perfect crystal and an amorphous structure like a liquid or glass. Here, we discover a hyperuniformity-preserving topological transformation in two-dimensional (2D) network structures that involves continuous introduction of Stone–Wales (SW) defects. Specifically, the static structure factor S(k) of the resulting defected networks possesses the scaling S(k) ∼ kα for small wave number k, where 1 ≤ α(p) ≤ 2 monotonically decreases as the SW defect concentration p increases, reaches α ≈ 1 at p ≈ 0.12, and remains almost flat beyond this p. Our findings have important implications for amorphous 2D materials since the SW defects are well known to capture the salient feature of disorder in these materials. Verified by recently synthesized single-layer amorphous graphene, our network models reveal unique electronic transport mechanisms and mechanical behaviors associated with distinct classes of disorder in 2D materials.