A tight-binding approach to uniaxial strain in graphene
arXiv:0811.4396 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.80.045401
Abstract
We analyze the effect of tensional strain in the electronic structure of graphene. In the absence of electron-electron interactions, within linear elasticity theory, and a tight-binding approach, we observe that strain can generate a bulk spectral gap. However this gap is critical, requiring threshold deformations in excess of 20%, and only along preferred directions with respect to the underlying lattice. The gapless Dirac spectrum is robust for small and moderate deformations, and the gap appears as a consequence of the merging of the two inequivalent Dirac points, only under considerable deformations of the lattice. We discuss how strain-induced anisotropy and local deformations can be used as a means to affect transport characteristics and pinch off current flow in graphene devices.
Expanded version of the original paper
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