Raise and collapse of strain-induced pseudo-Landau levels in graphene

Abstract

Lattice deformations couple to the low energy electronic excitations of graphene as vector fields similar to the electromagnetic potential \cite{SA02b,VKG10}. The suggestion that certain strain configurations would be able to induce pseudo landau levels in the spectrum of graphene \cite{GKG10,GGKN10}, and the subsequent experimental observation of these \cite{LBetal10} has been one of the most exciting events in an already fascinating field. It opened a new field of research "straintronics" linked to new applications, and had a strong influence on the physics of the new Dirac materials in two and three dimensions \cite{Amorim16}. The experimental observation of pseudo landau levels with scanning tunnel microscopy presents nevertheless some ambiguities. Similar strain patterns show different images sometimes difficult to interpret. In this work we strain the analogy of the pseudo versus real electromagnetic fields, as well as the fact that graphene has a relativistic behavior and show that, for some strain configurations, the deformation potential acts like a parallel electric field able to destabilize the Landau level structure via a mechanism identical to that described in \cite{LSB07,PC07} for real electromagnetic fields. The underlying physics is the combination of Maxwell electrodynamics and special relativity implying that different reference frames observe different electromagnetic fields \cite{LSB07}. The mechanism applies equally if the electric field has an external origin, which opens the door to an electric control of the giant pseudomagnetic fields in graphene.

5 pages, 2 figures

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• Pseudo-Landau levels of Bogoliubov quasiparticles in strained nodal superconductors
• Electron dynamics in strained graphene
• Work function, deformation potential, and collapse of Landau levels in strained graphene and silicene
• Straintronics beyond homogeneous deformation
• Analytic solution to pseudo-Landau levels in strongly bent graphene nanoribbons
• Landau level collapse in graphene in the presence of in-plane radial electric and perpendicular magnetic fields
• Landauer-Büttiker conductivity for spatially-dependent uniaxial strained armchair-terminated graphene nanoribbons
• Pseudo Landau levels, negative strain resistivity, and enhanced thermopower in twisted graphene nanoribbons
• Density of states and differential entropy in Dirac materials in crossed magnetic and in-plane electric fields
• Programmable Kondo Effect Formed by Landau Levels
• Strain-induced collapse of Landau Levels in real Weyl semimetals
• Zigzag edge states in graphene in the presence of in-plane electric field
• Deformation induced pseudo-magnetic fields in complex carbon architectures
• Nodal semimetals in $d\ge 3$ to sharp pseudo-Landau levels by dimensional reduction
• Spin-dependent transmission in curved graphene superlattice