Spatially Dependent Lattice Deformations for Dislocations at the Edges of Graphene

Abstract

We show that dislocations located at the edge of graphene cause different lattice deformations to those located in the bulk lattice. When a dislocation is located near an edge, a decrease in the rippling and increase of the in-plane rotation occurs relative to the dislocations in the bulk. The increased in-plane rotation near the edge causes bond rotations at the edge of graphene to reduce the overall strain in the system. Dislocations were highly stable and remained fixed in their position even when located within a few lattice spacings from the edge of graphene. We study this behavior at the atomic level using aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy. These results show detailed information about the behavior of dislocations in 2D materials and the strain properties that result