Modifying the electrical properties of graphene by reversible point-ripple formation

The voltage-dependent manipulation of few-layer graphene with a scanning tunneling microscopy tip

“…For few-layer graphene, the tip approach exhibits similar behavior but in retraction the layers may detach one at a time [6], as competing forces cause the graphene to 'snap' discontinuously back to the substrate [9]. Although atomic force microscopy (AFM) can be used to perform indentation measurements on graphene, it may not be suited to retraction stretching of graphene, because the graphene-tip forces deflect an AFM cantilever down to the graphene instead of deflecting the graphene up to the probe [11].…”

“…Controlling the strain in graphene offers a way to tailor its electronic properties, with repeated manipulation expected to lead to 2D van der Waals heterostructures [1][2][3][4]. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) is an ideal tool to both measure and manipulate graphene and other 2D materials by using the interaction of the probe to pull and push the graphene layers, simultaneously loading and measuring the electronic response [5][6][7]. As well as inducing and stretching ripples normal to the graphene plane, STM can also be used to perform stress-strain measurements on graphene, offering greater insights into its behavior when used in flexible electronics [8,9].…”

“…When a probe is moved towards suspended or supported graphene, attractive forces cause the graphene membrane to deflect or 'snap' discontinuously up to the tip [2,6,7,10]. For single layer graphene this forms a nanoscale bi-stable electromechanical system where the STM probe can be used to perturb the system between the in-contact deflected, and out-of-contact relaxed states.…”

The closed-edge structure of graphite and the effect of electrostatic charging

“…We then report images of graphite samples that have been exposed to an electric eld. It is now well established that electric elds can transform the structure of carbon materials 8,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] but the mechanism of the transformation is poorly understood. An earlier study suggested that the mechanism involved, in part, a separation of the closed graphite edges.…”

On Symmetry Properties of The Corrugated Graphene System

“…Recent experimental techniques enable demonstrating evidently a spatial variation of graphene and its direct consequences. For example, ripples can be formed by means of the electrostatic manipulation without any change of doping [3]. Periodically rippled graphene can be fabricated by the epitaxial technique (e.g., [4]).…”