Reply to "Comment on Gap opening in graphene by shear strain''

Abstract

In reply to the Comment by Ramasubramaniam regarding our article [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 81}, 241412(R) (2010)] we clarify that our results are indeed valid provided that out-of-plane atomic relaxations are inhibited, as it may occur in the technologically relevant case of supported graphene sheets. We argue that the Comment, while overall interesting, is addressed to the different case of a free standing graphene monolayer and, therefore, does not invalidate our conclusions. We also remark that the rippled configuration discussed in the Comment is most likely affected by major size effects and that, contrary to what suggested, our conclusions are not in contrast with the recent work by Pereira {\it et al.} [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 80}, 045401 (2009)].