Bilayer graphene holds promise for carbon based electronics

In partnership with the Universities of Manchester, Lancaster, Nijmegen and Moscow, the researchers studied in detail the effect of interactions between electrons on the electronic properties of bilayer graphene. The team used extremely high quality bilayer graphene devices, which were prepared by suspending sheets of the material in vacuum. This meant that most of the unwanted scattering mechanisms for electrons in graphene could be eliminated, thus enhancing the effect of electron to electron interaction. "The latter could be seen as strong changes in the low energy electronic spectrum - it becomes strongly anisotropic, or directionally dependent," said Professor Geim. "This is the first effect of its kind where the interactions between electrons in graphene can be clearly seen." Geim maintained that further experiments will be needed to fully characterise the properties of the bilayer. "Then it will be up to engineers to take these properties and build devices," he said. "High quality bilayer graphene is certainly an exciting material in its own right, and it certainly has its own niche in applications."