Dominant Phonon Wavevectors and Strain-induced Splitting of the 2D Graphene Raman Mode

The dominant phonon wavevectors $q^{*}$ probed by the 2D Raman mode of graphene are highly anisotropic and rotate with the orientation of the polarizer:analyzer direction relative to the lattice. The corresponding electronic transitions connect the electronic equibandgap contours where the product of the ingoing and outgoing optical matrix elements is strongest, showing a finite component along $\bm{K}-\bm{\Gamma}$ that sensitively determines $q^{*}$. We revoke the notion of 'inner' and 'outer' processes. Our findings explain the splitting of the 2D mode of graphene under uniaxial tensile strain. The splitting originates from a strain-induced distortion of the phonon dispersion; changes in the electronic band structure and resonance conditions are negligeable for the 2D Raman spectrum.