New Solution to Graphene Bandgap Problem

Graphene is one of the best electrical and thermal conductors on earth but his lack of switching capability hinders applications in active electronic devices.

Now, a team of researchers at the ICN (Barcelona, Spain), National University of Córdoba (Argentina), and RWTH (Aachen, Germany), suggest that illuminating graphene with a mid-infrared laser could be a key to switch-off conduction, thereby improving the possibilities for novel optoelectronic devices. In an article featured this week in Applied Physics Letters, researchers report on the first atomistic simulations of electrical conduction through a micrometer-sized graphene sample illuminated by a laser field. Their simulations show that a laser in the mid-infrared can open an observable bandgap in this otherwise gapless material. These results are timely due to the surge of interest on radiation-induced effects on graphene, as shown by the large number of preprints appearing during recent weeks by research groups worldwide.