‘Artificial graphene’ can be customised to specific tasks
1 min read
A new breed of ultra thin super material – dubbed 'artificial graphene' – is said to have the potential to cause a technological revolution by enabling faster, smaller and lighter electronic and optical devices.
While graphene is a single atom thick lattice of carbon atoms, 'artificial graphene' has the same structure, but uses nanometre thick semiconductor crystals instead of carbon atoms. By changing the size, shape and chemical nature of the nanocrystals, the material can be customised for specific tasks.
The work was undertaken by the University of Luxembourg, in partnership with the French Institute for Electronics, Microelectronics and Nanotechnology, the University of Utrecht and the Max Planck Institute in Dresden.
University of Luxembourg researcher Dr Efterpi Kalesaki is the lead author of a paper published in Physical Review X describing the breakthrough. "These self assembled semiconducting nanocrystals with a honeycomb structure are emerging as a new class of systems with great potential."
Professor Ludger Wirtz, head of the Theoretical Solid State Physics group at the University of Luxembourg, added: "Artificial graphene opens the door to a wide variety of materials with variable nano geometry and 'tunable' properties."
