Graphene Research in Warwick
Here you can find some information on graphene and our research in Warwick on this remarkable 2D material. Graphene is a single sheet of carbon atoms bound in a hexagonal "honeycomb" arrangement. The image above shows a diffraction pattern (LEED) from graphene grown on copper foil: the two hexagons visible reflect two rotated domains of graphene on the foil. To the left and right are shown angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) data of graphene on copper - the long "spike" represents the linear band structure of graphene. On the right, a band gap has opened up, making the graphene semiconducting rather than semi-metallic. The ability to control the band gap will be crucial for many applications of graphene. An excellent introduction to graphene is given in this lecture by Dr. Hiroki Hibino of NTT Basic Research Laboratories.
Our research
We are particularly interested in answering fundamental questions about the growth and properties of graphene and related materials such as hexagonal boron nitride, h-BN. How does graphene grow on cheap, technologically scalable substrates? How do substrates and adsorbates (molecules and metals stuck on top of a graphene sheet) affect the electronic properties? Can we make magnetic contacts to graphene?
Our recent open access publications on graphene (published with the CC-BY license):
- Is graphene on copper doped? (Physica Status Solidi Rapid Research Letters, 2013)
- Weak mismatch epitaxy and structural feedback in graphene growth on copper foil. (Nano Research, 2013)
- Size-dependent mobility of gold nano-clusters during growth on chemically modified graphene. (APL Materials, 2014)
Graphene Gallery
We use many microscopy techniques to image and study graphene. The Gallery shows some striking graphene images from electron microscopy, scanning probe microscopy and even scanning photoemission microscopy. These images exist in in "real space" but we also need to think about "reciprocal space" because electron diffraction is an important technique to understand the structure of graphene.
Conference Presentations
Invited talk, Gavin Bell: Scanning Photoemission Microscopy SPEM2014 meeting at Diamond Light Source
Topics to add
- Theoretical approaches to understanding "real" graphene
- On-going projects and grant funding
- PhD and MSc topics
- Microscopy techniques and what they tell us about graphene
- Discussion of equipment and techniques
- Collaborations, including our syncrotron radiation work with beamlines such as ANTARES
People
- Dr. Neil Wilson (Physics - Microscopy Group)
- Dr. Giovanni Costantini (Chemistry)
- Dr. Gavin Bell (Physics - Surface, Interface & Thin Film Group)
- Dr. David Quigley (Physics - Theory Group)
- Dr. Peter Brommer (Physics - Theory Group)