Strain engineering of graphene's electronic structure

Abstract

We explore the influence of local strain on the electronic structure of graphene. We show that strain can be easily tailored to generate electron beam collimation, 1D channels, surface states, and confinement. These can be seen as basic elements for all-graphene electronics which, by suitable engineering of local strain profiles, could be integrated on a single graphene sheet. In addition this proposal has the advantage that patterning can be made on substrates rather than on graphene, thereby protecting the integrity of the latter.