Strain-tunable band gap in graphene/h-BN hetero-bilayer

TL;DR

This study predicts that applying in-plane biaxial strain to graphene/h-BN hetero-bilayers can tune their band gap and effective mass, offering potential for nano-electromechanical and opto-mechanical applications.

Contribution

The paper demonstrates, through density functional calculations, that strain can modulate the electronic properties of graphene/h-BN hetero-bilayers, providing a new approach for device engineering.

Findings

Strain induces tunable band gap in graphene/h-BN hetero-bilayers.

Mechanical strain affects the quasi-particle effective mass.

Potential applications in NEMS and NOMS.

Abstract

Using full-potential density functional calculations within local density approximation (LDA), we predict that mechanically tunable band-gap and quasi-particle-effective-mass are realizable in graphene/hexagonal-BN hetero-bilayer (C/h-BN HBL) by application of in-plane homogeneous biaxial strain. While providing one of the possible reasons for the experimentally observed gap-less pristine-graphene-like electronic properties of C/h-BN HBL, which theoretically has a narrow band-gap, we suggest a schematic experiment for verification of our results which may find applications in nano-electromechanical systems (NEMS), nano opto-mechanical systems (NOMS) and other nano-devices based on C/h-BN HBL.