School of Physics Public Lecture - Dr. Walt De Heer

Abstract:

Graphene has been widely advertised as the new wonder material that can be produced by exfoliating graphite, using Scotch tape, down to a sheet that is one atom thick .  Because it is a 2-dimensional material, it was expected to revolutionize electronics, but 15 years of exfoliated graphene research has failed to even remotely meet this challenge. Starting in 2000, the Georgia Tech epigraphene electronics group has taken a different approach to graphene-based nanoelectronics, by growing it on single crystals of silicon carbide, using a method that was known for more than 50 years. This form of graphene, called epigraphene, has not only shown a wide variety of important new properties, it also is intrinsically compatible with industrial nanoelectronics fabrication methods.  In this talk I will discuss the historical development of epigraphene starting in the 1880’s and working up to the present day. I will focus on those aspects that sets graphene apart from other electronic materials as well as our recent discoveries of new ballistic edge states and how their quantum mechanical properties might be utilized in a new generation of electronics that utilizes electronic wave interference, like in optics.