Flipping nanoscale ripples of free-standing graphene using a scanning tunneling microscope tip
Journal
Carbon
Journal Volume
77
Pages
236-243
Date Issued
2014
Author(s)
Breitwieser, R.
Hu, Y.-C.
Chao, Y.C.
Li, R.-J.
Tzeng, Y.R.
Li, L.-J.
Liou, S.-C.
Lin, K.C.
Chen, C.W.
Abstract
We present a scanning tunneling microscopy study of the stress-strain behavior of a rippled single-layer free-standing graphene (FSG) and report that FSG exhibits a non-linear sigmoidal stress-strain behavior. We managed to pull and push nanoripples by controlling the STM tip-FSG interaction forces. In this way, we found that the initial deformations of a rippled FSG involve sign reversals of the nanoripple's local curvatures, termed "flipping". In contrast to elastic deformation of graphene, flipping of a FSG nanoripple encounters a stress barrier and therefore makes a rippled FSG metastable, as evidenced by monitoring a yielding process in both experiments and molecular dynamics simulations. The evolution of nanoripples subjected to STM control is also fully consistent with atom-resolved images. Our work therefore shows how rippled 2D carbon deforms at nanoscale. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Publisher
Elsevier Ltd
Type
journal article