Regents' Professor Walt de Heer discusses his research in this seminar, sponsored by the Georgia Tech School of Physics.

Abstract:
Graphene has been known for decades in many forms (exfoliated, epitaxial, isolated) and a number of its properties were measured or inferred from related materials, like graphite and carbon nanotubes. Yet, only recently was its potential as an electronic material recognized.  Epitaxial graphene on silicon carbide (EG) has played a pivotal role in this development: it was the first to be proposed as a platform for graphene-based electronics; the first measurements on graphene monolayers were made on EG; and the graphene-electronic band structure was first measured on EG. The epitaxial graphene program, initiated in 2001 at the Georgia Tech, has spearheaded graphene-based electronics and developed methods to produce electronics grade EG. The program demonstrated many of graphene’s fundamental and technologically important properties, including coherence and quantum confinement effects, chemical modification, electrostatic gating and large-scale integration. Currently, EG stands at the forefront of materials that may succeed (not replace!) silicon. In contrast to other candidate graphene-based materials, EG is produced in a simple, high-temperature annealing step on single-crystal silicon carbide, which itself is an important electronic material. Subsequent EG processing is straightforward and compatible with microelectronics procedures.  That is why several research programs have recently adopted the EG electronics paradigm resulting in ultrahigh speed transistors (HRL, IBM) and an EG quantum-Hall-effect resistance standard (NPL). These developments have made it clear that EG is well on its way to become a major player in 21st-century electronics.