Bending mode fluctuations and structural stability of graphene nanoribbons

TL;DR

This paper investigates how thermal fluctuations affect the stability and structural properties of narrow graphene nanoribbons, revealing different behaviors for fixed and free edge boundary conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a continuum membrane model to analyze the fluctuation spectra and stability of graphene nanoribbons with various boundary conditions, highlighting the role of edge modes.

Findings

Fixed edges lead to localized fluctuations with exponential decay.

Free edges exhibit gapless excitations causing rippling and edge scrolled structures.

Thermal fluctuations do not destroy the long-range crystalline order in fixed edges.

Abstract

We analyze the thermal fluctuations of a narrow graphene nanoribbon. Using a continuum, membrane-like model we study the height-height correlation functions and the destabilization modes corresponding to two different boundaries conditions: ribbons which are fixed or free on the edges. For the first situation, the thermal spectrum has a gap and the correlations along the ribbon decay exponentially. Thermal fluctuations produce only local perturbations of the flat situation. However, the long range crystalline order is not distorted. For free edges, the situation changes as thermal excitations are gapless. The low energy spectrum decouples into a bulk and an edge excitation. The bulk excitation tends to destabilize the crystalline order producing an homogeneous rippling. Furthermore, we associate the edge mode with a precluding perturbation leading to scrolled edges, as seen in suspended graphene samples.