Graphene single-electron transistors

Abstract

Graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms forming a perfectly stable and clean two-dimensional crystal with very few defects, has been proclaimed to be a new revolutionary material for electronics. These hopes rest mainly on the unique band structure properties of graphene. Although living essentially on the surface, electron mobilities in this material do not suffer extensively from surface contaminations and are surprisingly high even at room temperature. In comparison to extremely high quality semiconducting materials, such as Silicon and GaAs, the understanding of electronic transport in graphene is still in its infancy. Research on nanoscale transistors switching with only a single electron exemplifies that there are a number of unresolved problems that material scientists should tackle in the future for making the graphene dreams come true.