Vibrational characteristics of graphene sheets elucidated using an elastic network model.

Abstract

Recent studies of graphene have demonstrated its great potential for highly sensitive resonators. In order to capture the intrinsic vibrational characteristics of graphene, we propose an atomistic modeling method called the elastic network model (ENM), in which a graphene sheet is modeled as a mass-spring network of adjacent atoms connected by various linear springs with specific bond ratios. Normal mode analysis (NMA) reveals the various vibrational features of bi-layer graphene sheets (BLGSs) clamped at two edges. We also propose a coarse-graining (CG) method to extend our graphene study into the meso- and macroscales, at which experimental measurements and synthesis of graphene become practical. The simulation results show good agreement with experimental observations. Therefore, the proposed ENM approach will not only shed light on the theoretical study of graphene mechanics, but also play an important role in the design of highly-sensitive graphene-based resonators.