Topological Flat Bands in Strained Graphene: Substrate Engineering and Optical Control

The discovery of correlated phases in twisted moiré superlattices accelerated the search for low-dimensional materials with exotic properties. A promising approach uses engineered substrates to strain the material. However, designing substrates for tailored properties is hindered by the incomplete understanding of the relationship between the substrate's shapes and the electronic properties of the deposited materials. By analyzing effective models of graphene under periodic deformations with generic crystalline profiles, we identify strong C₂ symmetry breaking as the critical substrate geometric feature for emerging energy gaps and quasi-flat bands. We find continuous strain profiles producing connected pseudomagnetic field landscapes are important for band topology. We show that the resultant electronic and topological properties from a substrate can be controlled with circularly polarized light, which also offers unique signatures for identifying the band topology imprinted by strain. Our results can guide experiments on strain engineering for exploring interesting transport and topological phenomena.