Emergence of strain-induced moiré patterns and pseudo-magnetic field confined states in graphene

Abstract

Strain-inducing deformations in graphene alter charge distributions and provide a new method to design specific features in the band structure and transport properties. Novel approaches implement engineered substrates to induce specifically targeted strain profiles. Motivated by this technique, we study the evolution of charge distributions with an increasing number of out-of-plane deformations as an example of a finite size periodic substrate. We first analyze a system of two overlapping deformations and determine the quantitative relation between geometrical parameters and features in the local density of states. We extend the study to sets of 3 and 4 deformations in linear and two-dimensional arrays and observe the emergence of moiré patterns that are more pronounced for a hexagonal cell composed of 7 deformations. A comparison between the induced strain profile and spatial maps of the local density of states at different energies provides evidence for the existence of states confined by the pseudo-magnetic field in bounded regions, reminiscent of quantum dots structures. Due to the presence of these states, the energy level scaling to be observed by local probes should exhibit a linear dependence with the pseudo-field, in contrast to the expected scaling of pseudo-Landau levels.

10 pages, 12 figures

References in corpus (16)

• The electronic properties of graphene
• Andreev reflection and Klein tunneling in graphene
• Magnetic confinement of massless Dirac fermions in graphene
• Evidence of Flat Bands and Correlated States in Buckled Graphene Superlattices
• Observation of an intrinsic bandgap and Landau level renormalization in graphene/boron-nitride heterostructures
• Graphene Nanobubbles as Valley Filters and Beamsplitters
• Tuning the pseudospin polarization of graphene by a pseudo-magnetic field
• Graphene/Au(111) interaction studied by scanning tunneling microscopy
• Double moiré with a twist: super-moiré in encapsulated graphene
• Gaussian deformations in graphene ribbons: flowers and confinement
• Local sublattice symmetry breaking for graphene with a centro-symmetric deformation
• Pseudomagnetic Fields in a Locally Strained Graphene Drumhead
• All-strain based valley filter in graphene nanoribbons using snake states
• Valley polarization braiding in strained graphene
• Moiré superlattices in strained graphene-gold hybrid nanostructures
• Electron dynamics in strained graphene

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Boundary Modes from Periodic Magnetic and Pseudomagnetic Fields in Graphene
• Topological flat bands in strained graphene: substrate engineering and optical control
• Graphene nanodrums as valleytronic devices
• Valley-dependent transport through graphene quantum dots due to proximity-induced, staggered spin-orbit couplings