We study vibrational states localized at the edges of graphene nanoribbons. Such surface oscillations can be considered as a phonon analog of Tamm states in the electronic theory. We consider both armchair and zigzag graphene stripes and demonstrate that surface modes correspond to phonons localized at the edges of the graphene nanoribbon, and they can be classified as in-plane and out-of-plane modes. In armchair nanoribbons anharmonic edge modes can experience longitudinal localization in the form of self-localized nonlinear modes or surface breather solitons.

• Received 20 January 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.81.165418