Space Dependent Fermi Velocity in Strained Graphene

FERNANDO DE JUAN, MAURICIO STURLA, AND MARÍA A. H. VOZMEDIANO

PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

Lugar: New York; Año: 2012 vol. 108 p. 1 - 5

0031-9007

We investigate some apparent discrepancies between two different models for curved graphene: the one based on tight-binding and elasticity theory, and the covariant approach based on quantum field theory in curved space. We demonstrate that strained or corrugated samples will have a space-dependent Fermi velocity in either approach that can affect the interpretation of local probe experiments in graphene. We also generalize the tight-binding approach to general inhomogeneous strain and find a gauge field proportional to the derivative of the strain tensor that has the same form as the one obtained in the covariant approach.