Gap engineering in strained fold-like armchair graphene nanoribbons

摘要

Strained fold-like deformations on armchair graphene nanoribbons (AGNRs) can be properly engineered in experimental setups, and could lead to a controlling tool for gaps and transport properties. Here, we analyze the electronic properties of folded AGNRs relating to the electronic responses and the mechanical deformation. An important and universal parameter for the gap engineering is the ribbon percent-width variation, i.e., the difference between the deformed and undeformed ribbon widths. AGNRs band gap can be tuned mechanically in a well-defined bounded range of energy values, eventually leading to a metallic system. This characteristic provides a controllable degree of freedom that allows manipulation of electronic currents. We show that the numerical results are analytically predicted by solving the Dirac equation for the strained system.