Uniaxial strain in graphene by Raman spectroscopy: G peak splitting, Grüneisen parameters, and sample orientation

We uncover the constitutive relation of graphene and probe the physics of its optical phonons by studying its Raman spectrum as a function of uniaxial strain. We find that the doubly degenerate E(2g) optical mode splits in two components: one polarized along the strain and the other perpendicular. This splits the G peak into two bands, which we call G(+) and G(-), by analogy with the effect of curvature on the nanotube G peak. Both peaks redshift with increasing strain and their splitting increases, in excellent agreement with first-principles calculations. Their relative intensities are found to depend on light polarization, which provides a useful tool to probe the graphene crystallographic orientation with respect to the strain. The 2D and 2D(') bands also redshift but do not split for small strains. We study the Gruneisen parameters for the phonons responsible for the G, D, and D(') peaks. These can be used to measure the amount of uniaxial or biaxial strain, providing a fundamental tool for nanoelectronics, where strain monitoring is of paramount importance.