Graphene.ppt

Graphene Rachel Wooten Department of Physics Solid State Physics II March 6, 2008 Taught by Professor Dagotto Outline What is graphene? How it is made Properties Electronic physical properties Relativistic charge carriers Anomalous quantum Hall effect Future Applications 2-dimensional hexagonal lattice of carbon sp2 hybridized carbon atoms Basis for C-60 (bucky balls), nanotubes, and graphite Among strongest bonds in nature A Two dimensional crystal In the 1930s, Landau and Peierls (and Mermin, later)showed thermodynamics prevented 2-d crystals in free state. Melting temperature of thin films decreases rapidly with temperature - monolayers generally unstable. In 2004, experimental discovery of graphene- high quality 2-d crystals Possibly, 3-d rippling stabilizes crystal How to make graphene Strangely cheap and easy. Either draw with a piece of graphite, or repeatedly peel with Scotch tape Place samples on specific thickness of Silicon wafer. The wrong thickness of silicon leaves graphene invisible. Graphene visible through feeble interference effect. Different thicknesses are different colors. Samples of graphene Graphite films visualized through atomic force microscopy. Transmission electron microscopy image Electrons in graphene Electrons in p-orbitals above and below plane p-orbitals become conjugated across the plane Electrons free to move across plane in delocalized orbitals Extremely high tensile strength Properties: charge carriers Samples are excellent- graphene is ambipolar: charge carrier concentration continuously tunable from electrons to holes in high concentrations Relativistic charge carriers Linear dispersion relation- charge carriers behave like massless Dirac fermions with an effective speed of light c*~106. (But cyclotron mass is nonzero.) Relativistic behavior comes from interaction with lattice potential of graphene, not from carriers moving near speed of light. Behavior ONLY present in monolayer graphene; disappears with 2 or more layer