Midgap states and charge inhomogeneities in corrugated graphene

Abstract

We study the changes induced by the effective gauge field due to ripples on the low energy electronic structure of graphene. We show that zero-energy Landau levels will form, associated with the smooth deformation of the graphene layer, when the height corrugation, $h$, and the length of the ripple, $l$, are such that ${h}^{2}∕la\ensuremath{\gtrsim}1$, where $a$ is the lattice constant. The existence of localized levels gives rise to a large compressibility at zero energy and to the enhancement of instabilities arising from electron-electron interactions including electronic phase separation. The combined effect of the ripples and an external magnetic field breaks the valley symmetry of graphene, leading to the possibility of valley selection.