Conduction gap in graphene strain junctions: direction dependence

It has been shown in a recent study (Nguyen et al 2014 Nanotechnology 25 165201) that unstrained/strained graphene junctions are promising candidates to improve the performance of graphene transistors which is usually hindered by the gapless nature of graphene. Although the energy bandgap of strained graphene still remains zero, the shift of Dirac points in the k-space due to strain-induced deformation of graphene lattice can lead to the appearance of a finite conduction gap of several hundred meV in strained junctions with a strain of only a few per cent. However, since it depends essentially on the magnitude of the Dirac point shift, this conduction gap strongly depends on the direction of applied strain and the transport direction. In this work, a systematic study of conduction-gap properties with respect to these quantities is presented and the results are carefully analyzed. Our study provides useful information for further investigations to exploit graphene-strained junctions in electronic applications and strain sensors.