Pseudomagnetic Fields in a Locally Strained Graphene Drumhead

Abstract

Recent experiments reveal that a scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) probe tip can generate a highly localized strain field in a graphene drumhead, which in turn leads to pseudomagnetic fields in the graphene that can spatially confine graphene charge carriers in a way similar to a lithographically defined quantum dot (QD). While these experimental findings are intriguing, their further implementation in nanoelectronic devices hinges upon the knowledge of key underpinning parameters, which still remain elusive. In this paper, we first summarize the experimental measurements of the deformation of graphene membranes due to interactions with the STM probe tip and a back gate electrode. We then carry out systematic coarse grained, (CG), simulations to offer a mechanistic interpretation of STM tip-induced straining of the graphene drumhead. Our findings reveal the effect of (i) the position of the STM probe tip relative to the graphene drumhead center, (ii) the sizes of both the STM probe tip and graphene drumhead, as well as (iii) the applied back-gate voltage, on the induced strain field and corresponding pseudomagnetic field. These results can offer quantitative guidance for future design and implementation of reversible and on-demand formation of graphene QDs in nanoelectronics.

21 pages, 9 figures

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• Two-dimensional crystals on adhesive substrates subjected to uniform transverse pressure
• Topological flat bands in strained graphene: substrate engineering and optical control
• Understanding and engineering phonon-mediated tunneling into graphene on metal surfaces
• Electron dynamics in strained graphene
• Graphene Transport Mediated by Micropatterned Substrates
• Reverse strain-induced snake states in graphene nanoribbons
• A strain-engineered graphene qubit in a nanobubble
• Numerical quasi-conformal transformations for electron dynamics on strained graphene surfaces
• Emergence of strain-induced moiré patterns and pseudo-magnetic field confined states in graphene
• Floquet analysis of pulsed Dirac systems: A way to simulate rippled graphene
• Transport through dynamic pseudo-gauge fields and snake states in a Corbino geometry
• Determination of the STM tip-graphene repulsive forces by comparative STM and AFM measurements on suspended graphene
• Lévy-Leblond fermions on the wormhole
• Apparent rippling with honeycomb symmetry and tunable periodicity observed by scanning tunneling microscopy on suspended graphene
• Pseudomagnetic fields and strain engineering: graphene on GaN nanowires
• Landau levels of a Dirac electron in graphene from non-uniform magnetic fields
• Designer quantum matter in van der Waals heterostructures