Conductance signatures of electron confinement induced by strained nanobubbles in graphene

DA Bahamon and ZA Qi and HS Park and VM Pereira and DK Campbell, NANOSCALE, 7, 15300-15309 (2015).

DOI: 10.1039/c5nr03393d

We investigate the impact of strained nanobubbles on the conductance characteristics of graphene nano-ribbons using a combined molecular dynamics - tight-binding simulation scheme. We describe in detail how the conductance, density of states, and current density of zigzag or armchair graphene nanoribbons are modified by the presence of a nanobubble. In particular, we establish that low-energy electrons can be confined in the vicinity of or within the nanobubbles by the delicate interplay among the pseudo-magnetic field pattern created by the shape of the bubble, mode mixing, and substrate interaction. The coupling between confined evanescent states and propagating modes can be enhanced under different clamping conditions, which translates into Fano resonances in the conductance traces.

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