Quantum transport in graphene in presence of strain-induced pseudo-Landau levels

arXiv:1607.07300v1We report on mesoscopic transport fingerprints in disordered graphene caused by strain-field induced pseudomagnetic Landau levels (pLLs). Efficient numerical real space calculations of the Kubo formula are performed for an ordered network of nanobubbles in graphene, creating pseudomagnetic fields up to several hundreds of Tesla, values inaccessible by real magnetic fields. Strain-induced pLLs yield enhanced scattering effects across the energy spectrum resulting in lower mean free path and enhanced localization effects. In the vicinity of the zeroth order pLL, we demonstrate an anomalous transport regime, where the mean free paths increases with disorder. We attribute this puzzling behavior to the low-energy sub-lattice polarization induced by the zeroth order pLL, which is unique to pseudomagnetic fields preserving time-reversal symmetry. These results, combined with the experimental feasibility of reversible deformation fields, open the way to tailor a metal-insulator transition driven by pseudomagnetic fields.The work by MS is funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research (DFF5051-00011). Funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement 604391 Graphene Flagship is acknowledged. SR acknowledges the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for funding (MAT2012-33911), the Secretaria de Universidades e Investigacion del Departamento de Economia y Conocimiento de la Generalidad de Cataluña and the Severo Ochoa Program (MINECO SEV-2013-0295). The Center for Nanostructured Graphene (CNG) is sponsored by the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF103).Peer Reviewe