Strain modulated carrier mobility and optical properties of graphene nanowiggles

Recently, synthesized Chevron graphene nanoribbons (CGNRs) and its laterally extended counterpart known as extended CGNRs (ECGNR) are constructed by making alternated regular cuts in pristine graphene nanoribbons (GNRs). First-principles calculations demonstrate that these GNRs are super-ductile and possess width-dependent mechanical properties. The Young's modulus is calculated to be 389.4 GPa and 414.6 GPa for CGNR and ECGNR, respectively. The bandgap of these nanoribbons decreases on the application of tensile strain. The carrier effective masses are found to be highly sensitive towards mechanical strains. The holes (electrons) mobility of ECGNR is calculated to be 7.68 × 10⁴ cm² V^-1 s^-1 (1.69 × 10⁴ cm² V^-1 s^-1), which is higher than that of CGNR can be further enhanced by elongation. The prominent peaks of the imaginary part of dielectric function and electron energy loss spectra show redshift on increasing the tensile strain. The electron energy loss spectra show intense plasmonic structure in low energy spectrum indicating GNRs to be more sensitive to the visible region than ultra violet spectrum. Our results provide insight about the possible applications of GNRs in the fields of high-speed transistors, sensors, photonics, and optoelectronics.