Strain-Induced Pseudo-Magnetic Fields Greater Than 300 Tesla in Graphene Nanobubbles
Abstract
Recent theoretical proposals suggest that strain can be used to engineer graphene electronic states through the creation of a pseudo-magnetic field. This effect is unique to graphene because of its massless Dirac fermion-like band structure and particular lattice symmetry (C3v). Here, we present experimental spectroscopic measurements by scanning tunneling microscopy of highly strained nanobubbles that form when graphene is grown on a platinum (111) surface. The nanobubbles exhibit Landau levels that form in the presence of strain-induced pseudo-magnetic fields greater than 300 tesla. This demonstration of enormous pseudo-magnetic fields opens the door to both the study of charge carriers in previously inaccessible high magnetic field regimes and deliberate mechanical control over electronic structure in graphene or so-called “strain engineering.”
- Publication:
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Science
- Pub Date:
- July 2010
- DOI:
- 10.1126/science.1191700
- Bibcode:
- 2010Sci...329..544L
- Keywords:
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- PHYSICS