Strain-Engineered Wrinkles on Graphene Using Polymeric Actuators

Abstract

Corrugations strongly affect the electronic and optical properties of two-dimensional materials, and could be used to develop e.g. ultrathin pressure sensors, electronic waveguides, or hydrogen-storage devices. That requires fine control of the structure and geometry of the wrinkles, and thus a reliable and flexible method to generate them. This work shows how polymeric microactuators can be used to induce ordered arrays of wrinkles on graphene. Moreover, its proof-of-concept experiment demonstrates the potential of mechanical actuators to tune the corrugation of other two-dimensional materials as well.