Uniaxial-stress effects on electronic structures of nanographite ribbons

The uniaxial-stress effects on the low-energy electronic properties of nanographite ribbons are studied by the tight-binding model. The dependence on the strain, the edge structure, the ribbon width, and the stacking sequence is strong. The strain could induce the alternation of energy dispersions, the destruction of state degeneracy, the variation of energy gap, the semiconductor-metal transition, and the change of special structures in density of states. The effects of strain are important for the AB- and AA-stacked armchair ribbons. However, they are negligible for the AB- and AA-stacked zigzag ribbons. Armchair ribbons could exhibit the semiconductor-metal transition. Such transition is mainly determined by the strain and the ribbon-ribbon interactions. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.