Electron States of Uniaxially Strained Graphene

Abstract

We report an experimental study of electron states and the resulting electronic transport properties of uniaxially strained graphene. For this study we developed a novel strain application method that is compatible with the planar device technology. We identify the value of the strain induced in graphene by Raman spectroscopy and show with atomic force microscopy that its topography consists of wrinkles up to 4 nm height aligned along the direction of the applied strain. Transport experiments reveal a broadening of the charge neutrality region and the convergence of Landau levels to multiple Dirac points in Landau-fan diagrams. These observations are consistent with large fluctuations of the scalar potential via the strain-induced wrinkles, which is experimentally observed for the first time.