Pseudomagnetic Fields in a Locally Strained Graphene Drumhead

Published

August 25, 2014

Author(s)

Shuze Zhu, Yinjun Huang, Nikolai Klimov, David B. Newell, Nikolai Zhitenev, Joseph A. Stroscio, Santiago D. Solares Rivera, Teng Li

Abstract

Recent experiments reveal that a scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) probe tip can generate a highly localized strain field in a graphene drumhead, which in turn leads to pseudomagnetic fields in the graphene that can spatially confine graphene charge carriers in a way similar to a lithographically defined quantum dot (QD). While these experimental findings are intriguing, their further implementation in nanoelectronic devices hinges upon the knowledge of key underpinning parameters, which still remain elusive. In this paper, we carry out systematic coarse grained simulations to offer a mechanistic interpretation of STM tip-induced straining of the graphene drumhead. Our findings reveal the effect of (i) the position of the STM probe tip relative to the graphene drumhead center, (ii) the sizes of both the STM probe tip and graphene drumhead, as well as (iii) the applied back-gate voltage, on the induced strain field and corresponding pseudomagnetic field. These results can offer quantitative guidance for future design and implementation of reversible and on-demand formation of graphene QDs in nanoelectronics.

Citation

Physical Review B

Volume

90

Issue

7

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.90.075426

Local Download

Keywords

graphene, pseudomagnetic field, quantum dot, STM, scanning tunneling microscopy, scanning tunneling spectroscopy

Citation

Zhu, S. , Huang, Y. , Klimov, N. , Newell, D. , Zhitenev, N. , Stroscio, J. , Solares Rivera, S. and Li, T. (2014), Pseudomagnetic Fields in a Locally Strained Graphene Drumhead, Physical Review B, [online], https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.90.075426, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=915987 (Accessed October 8, 2025)