Nanostructured graphene for energy harvesting

Engineered nonlinearities have been shown to play an important role in increasing the efficiency of energy harvesting devices. Macroscopic prototypes using this approach have been demonstrated recently [F. Cottone, H. Vocca, and L. Gammaitoni, Phys. Rev. Lett.PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.102.080601 102, 080601 (2009).] Here, in order to implement such a scheme at the nanoscale, we propose a simple device which is based on strained nanostructured graphene and discuss how it can respond to many energy sources that, although having a low intensity, are freely available, such as ambient vibrations or thermal noise. We discuss in some detail the case of thermal fluctuations harvesting in the steady-state nonequilibrium regime and of ambient vibrations. © 2011 American Physical Society.