Observation of increasing bending rigidity of graphene with temperature

The mechanical properties of two-dimensional materials are important for a wide range of applications including composite and van der Waals-materials, flexible electronics and superconductivity. Several aspects are highly debated in the literature: For example, the theoretically predicted bending rigidity κ at 0 K for quasi free-standing graphene varies from 0.8 to 1.6 eV, and there are predictions that it could either increase or decrease with temperature. Here we present an experimental study of the temperature-dependent bending rigidity κ ( T ) of graphene. From the phonon dispersion relation measured with helium atom scattering for the out-of-plane acoustic (ZA) mode, we find κ ( T ) to increase with sample temperature. We compare our experimental results with novel molecular dynamics (MD) simulations performed as part of this study as well as available literature data. The calculations reproduce the temperature trend of our experiments, but with a slightly weaker slope. A probable cause for the observed differences is the slight strain associated with experimental substrate supported graphene that is not present in the calculations.