Electromechanics of Twisted Graphene Nanoribbons

Graphene nanoribbons are the flimsiest material systems in the world, and they get readily distorted. Distortion by twisting, for one, is important because it couples to ribbon's electronic properties. In this Letter, using simulations with density-functional tight-binding and revised periodic boundary conditions, I show that twisting appears almost equivalent to stretching; electronic structures in a given nanoribbon either upon twisting or upon certain stretching are quantitatively similar. This simple equivalence will provide a valuable guideline for interpreting and designing experiments with these flimsy ribbons.