graduate

Graphene: a physicist's view of the wonder material

TYPEColloquium
Speaker:Prof. Eva Andrei
Affiliation:Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, Piscataway NJ
Date:30.12.2013
Time:14:30
Location:Lidow Rosen Auditorium (323)
Abstract:Within the short time since its first scotch-tape extraction from
graphite, Graphene a one atom-thick crystal of carbon - has
metamorphosed from the poor relative of diamond into a wonder
material. By now it has amassed an impressive string of superlatives
lightest, thinnest, strongest material, best electrical and thermal
conductor - as well as the 2010 Nobel Prize for its discoverers. These
properties carry the promise of extraordinary potential applications
which have attracted interest from diverse sectors including
electronics, communications, aeronautics, pharmaceuticals and
computing. For physicists Graphene has opened an arena of new physics
arising from its exotic charge carriers - massless Dirac fermions -
that resemble two dimensional neutrinos. I will review the story and
physics of graphene with emphasis on its unusual electronic properties
and will describe scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy
experiments which provided access to the two-dimensional world of
Dirac fermions, their interactions with each other and with the
environment.