Universities Further Investigate Graphene

Physicists discover how two-dimensional materials like graphene can be used to design new materials and electronic devices for future technologies.

19:53 10 March 2019

Physicists from The Universities of Manchester and Sheffield have discovered that two atomically thin materials like graphene can pave the way for design of new materials and nano devices. They said that attaching 2D Lego-like materials to each other via a so called van der Waals interaction can change their properties allowing a material with novel hybrid properties to emerge.

 

The study, which was published in Nature, also found that the new hybrid material can then be controlled by twisting the two stocked atomic layers. The scientists said that this method opens a new way for the unique design of new materials and electronic devices for future technologies.

 

Professor Tartakovskii said: “The more complex picture of interaction between atomically thin materials within van der Waals heterostructures emerges. This is exciting, as it gives the opportunity to access an even broader range of material properties such as unusual and twist-tunable electrical conductivity and optical response, magnetism etc. This could and will be employed as new degrees of freedom when designing new 2D-based devices.”

 

Professor Vladimir Falko, Director of the National Graphene Institute added: “By controlling the hybridization of electron’s states in heterostructures and also using moiré superlattice effects, which are generic for heterostructures of atomically thing films, we acquire a new handle for tailoring optical properties of materials.”