Possible strain-induced directional superconductivity in graphene

TL;DR

This paper predicts that applying large strain to graphene can induce a directional superconductivity-like behavior, with a significant increase in conductance along the armchair direction at a critical strain, due to strain-induced energy gaps.

Contribution

The study introduces a theoretical prediction of strain-induced directional superconductivity in graphene, highlighting a new way to manipulate electronic properties via mechanical deformation.

Findings

Large strain creates an energy gap in graphene at a critical point.

Conductance along armchair direction dramatically increases at critical strain.

Strain-induced effects lead to highly anisotropic electronic behavior resembling superconductivity.

Abstract

Applying large strain in zigzag direction, gapless graphene may turns into gapped graphene at the critical strain. The energy gap between valence and conduction bands is created above the critical deformation. We theoretically predict that, using the Landauer formalism to study conductance in ballistic limit, the strain dependence of ballistic conductance, related to tight-binding-based carriers, evolves into a tremendously large conductance at the critical strain, found only for the conductance of current along armchair direction. This directional superconductance may lead graphene to resemble a superconductor. The strain-induced energy gap plays the role of the superconducting gap. This behavior is due to the fact that strain-induced change of electronic properties leads to highly anisotropic fermions to cause this tremendously large conductance.