Continuum theory of dislocations and buckling in graphene

A continuum theory is formulated to describe dislocations within graphene. The bending modes and defect formation energies predicted by the theory are in good agreement with atomic scale total energy calculations. Dislocations induce out-of-plane buckling that screens their strain fields and enables the identification of a dislocation formation energy. Further, the theory provides an efficient means to model nanoidentation of suspended graphene.