Pseudomagnetic Field in a Graphene Drumhead under Localized Deformation
Shuze Zhu (University of Maryland), Yinjun Huang (University of Maryland), Teng Li (University of Maryland)
Synthesis, Characterization, and Modeling of Low-Dimensional Nanomaterials
Tue 2:40 - 4:00
Salomon 202
Recently there has been a growing interest on conducting Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) experiments on free standing graphene in an effort to achieve experimental control over the electronic properties in strained graphene, where the strain is found to have an effect similar to the application of a magnetic field. To date, tip-induced engineering of graphene is becoming a novel research technique, which enables the exploration of both mechanical and electronic properties of graphene. However, the understanding of the tip-induced strain field in suspended graphene still remains vague. To offer a mechanistic interpretation of such tip-induced straining of suspended graphene, in this work, by employing a coarse grained simulation scheme capable of managing length scale of the experiment, we have revealed the effect of the tip size and graphene drumhead diameter on the induced strain field, characterized by corresponding pesudomagnetic field, as well as the influence from the back-gate voltage and the tip location. The results agree well with the estimation from recent STM experiments. Publication: Electro-mechanical properties of graphene drumheads, Science, 336, 1557 (2012).