Approximately 800 people from around the world came to Toulouse, France, to attend Graphene 2014.
From May 6th through the 9th, researchers, industry, policymakers, and investors shared knowledge and ideas about the state of the art of graphene. The topics covered during the conference included graphene-based materials; material and device characterization; theory and simulation; and worldwide graphene intiatives, funding, and priorities.
The Institut Catala de Nanociencia i Nanotecnologia (ICN2) played an active role in the conference. ICREA Prof. Stephan Roche, leader of the Theoretical and Computational Nanoscience group at ICN2, is one of the three members of the organizing committee of the annual Graphene Conference series, which began in 2011. In addition to his role in organizing the conference, Prof. Roche chaired a workshop called Worldwide Graphene Initiatives, Funding, and Priorities.
In the same workshop that Prof. Roche chaired, Prof. Pablo Ordejón, the director of ICN2, gave a presentation about graphene research at ICN2. He highlighted the ultimate goal of ICN2: to produce devices for real-life applications. To achieve this goal, the Institute has developed four major research areas that work together synergistically: (1) theory and simulations, (2) production methods, (3) characterization and analysis, and (4) device design, fabrication, and evaluation. The scientists and technicians at ICN2 conduct both basic and applied research, always seeking collaboration with local and global industries.
Dr. Aron Cummings, a member of Prof. Roche’s Theoretical and Computational Nanoscience group, gave an oral presentation during the Plenary Session about grain boundary resistivity in polycrystalline graphene. His group used numerical simulations to reveal the main mechanism responsible for the resistivity that experimentalists have measured in graphene grain boundaries. They found that various chemical species that adsorb to the grain boundaries increase resistivity and strongly impact the electrical properties of graphene produced by chemical vapour deposition.
In the Theory and Simulation workshop, Nicolas Leconte, a member of Prof Roche’s Theoretical and Computation Nanoscience group, gave an oral presentation about the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE). Van Tuan Dinh gave an oral presentation in a PhD Student Session about spin-pseudospin entanglement and spin relaxation in graphene. Rafael Martinez-Gordillo also gave an oral presentation in a PhD session, talking about transport fingerprints at graphene superlattice Dirac points. ICN2 had three posters at the conference: Quantum Hall effect in chemically-functionalized graphene by Nicolas Leconte; Minimal tight-binding model for transition metal dichalcogenides, by José Silva-Guillén; and Pseudo-gap opening and Dirac point confined states in doped graphene, by Eduardo Barrios-Vargas.
At the conference exhibition, ICN2 had an impressive display and was represented by Jordi Reverter, ICN2’s Technology Transfer Manager, along with Alex Argemi and Ayla Kiser of ICN2’s Marketing and Communications Department. The team’s mission was to increase the visibility of ICN2 in the field of graphene and to initiate communication between ICN2 and other research institutes and companies for future collaboration. After having met and talked with at least people from numerous institutes and companies around the world, the team felt like it had accomplished its mission. Overall, ICN2’s participation in Graphene 2014 was a success.
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Pictures by: Gilles MARTIN/Graphene2014 (more pictures)
Video by: ICN2 Marketing and Communication Department