Band structure of deformed armchair nanoribbon with bond alternation

•In the presence of bond alternation all armchair GNRs are semiconducting.•Slope of dependency of the energy gap on its stress depends on tension direction.•We can control the band gap of nanoribbon by its strain.

Electronic energy band structure of deformed armchair graphene nanoribbons with bond alternation is studied by the tight-binding approximation. In the presence of bond alternation, all armchair graphene nanoribbons become semiconducting with small band gap opened at center of the Brillouin zone. Under tensional strain, armchair graphene nanoribbons can become metallic at the critical values of deformation and we can control the band gap of nanoribbon by its strain.