A combination of scanning electron micsroscope (SEM), electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and ab-initio calculations reveal the bonding and electronic structure of single Si atom dopant in graphene.
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl304187e
Epitaxial graphene grown on SiC has excellent quality in terms of mobility and is a candidate for microelectronics industry. However, graphene's interaction with SiC disturbs most of the properties. In a recent ACS Nano report, researchers have used oxygen as an intercalant to lift graphene from SiC and opens up ways for further applications.
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nn302729j
Graphene is strongly known for its exotic electronic properties. However, spin properties of graphene are also vitally important for new spintronics based devices. A recent report published in Nature reveals hole spin resonance and zero-field psuedo splitting in epitaxial graphene photoexcited by microwaves.
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v3/n8/full/ncomms1986.html
One of the major focus areas in graphene research is the spintronic applications of graphene. However, this depends on an efficient induction of spin-orbit coupling in graphene.
Now, it is demonstrated using angle resolved photo-emission spectroscopy that hybridization between gold (a special configuration) and graphene can lead to enhanced spin-orbit splitting of the order of 100 meV.
Optoelectronic and plasmonic applications of graphene relies on cooling of hot electrons generated after interaction with light. A group of reserachers have studied the nature of this cooling using graphene as a thermometer and explains the findings by invoking supercollision mechanism found recently in graphene.
http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nphys2493.html
The flexibility of changing the Fermi energy level of graphene by a voltage has proven to be a blessing in many applications. Especially optoelectronics and photonic application of graphene have emerged.
A new finding reveals the detection of supercollision, i.e. collision of charge carriers with both phonons and impurities, in graphene. The study proves to be useful for bolometric and photo-detection applications of graphene.
http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nphys2494.html