Transport signatures of pseudo-magnetic Landau levels in strained graphene ribbons

Abstract

In inhomogeneously strained graphene, low-energy electrons experience a valley-antisymmetric pseudo-magnetic field which leads to the formation of localized states at the edge between the valence and conduction bands, understood in terms of peculiar n=0 pseudo-magnetic Landau levels. Here we show that such states can manifest themselves as an isolated quadruplet of low-energy conductance resonances in a suspended stretched graphene ribbon, where clamping by the metallic contacts results in a strong inhomogeneity of strain near the ribbon ends.