Graphene breakthrough paves way for even faster electronics

Professor Andre Geim and Professor Kostya Novoselov discovered the world's thinnest material at the University of Manchester in 2004, but have revealed more about its electronic properties in Nature Physics. The academics have studied in detail the effect of interactions between electrons and the electronic properties of graphene. High quality graphene devices were prepared by suspending sheets of graphene in a vacuum, eliminating most of the unwanted scattering mechanisms for electrons and enhancing the effect of electron on electron interaction in the process. According to the researchers, this is the first effect of its kind where the interactions between electrons in graphene could be clearly seen. The reason for such unique electronic properties is that electrons in this material are very different from those in any other metals. They mimic massless relativistic particles – such as photons. Prof Novoselov said: "Although the exciting physics which we have found in this particular experiment may have an immediate implementation in practical electronic devices, the further understanding of the electronic properties of this material will bring us a step closer to the development of graphene electronics." Professor Geim added: "The progress has been possible due to quantum leap in improvement of the sample quality which could be produced at The University of Manchester." The pair's work won them the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010 for 'groundbreaking experiments regarding the two dimensional material graphene'.