Electro – mechanical Coupling

The unit cell of layered materials can stretch by ~ 20% without breaking, which is much more than the typical breaking strain of other crystals. Such extreme lattice deformation can modify the electronic and optical properties of the crystal profoundly. For example they can induce huge internal synthetic fields that deflect the electrons motion more than any accessible magnetic field.

We wish to develop new concepts to apply extreme and controllable strain to the layered structures and to test their response by transport and optical measurements. Once achieved, we expect novel phenomena such as mechanically controlled “pseudo-Landau levels”, unique piezoelectricity, and huge local charge accumulation.

SEM image and finite-element calculations of pseudo-magnetic fields expected in graphene