Physics (Internal)

Graphene: Exploring Carbon Flatland

This event is part of the Biophysics/Condensed Matter Seminar Series.

Abstract: When one writes with a pencil, thin flakes of graphite are left on the surface making a dark trace. Some of these flakes turn out to be only one atom thick and can be viewed as individual atomic planes pulled out from bulk graphite. These planes look like a chicken wire made from carbon atoms. Despite being literally right before our eyes for centuries, this thinnest possible material in our universe called graphene was presumed not to exist until it was discovered by our group in 2004. Now graphene is a bright and still rapidly rising star on the horizon of materials science and condensed matter physics, revealing a cornucopia of new physics and potential applications. I will overview our experimental work on graphene concentrating on its exotic electronic properties that are governed by Dirac-like equations rather than the standard Schrödinger equation and speculate about future applications.