Lasers could produce band gaps in graphene

Foa Torres, a scientist from the National University of Córdoba in Argentina, says that Graphene's Achilles heel is the fact that it does not have a band gap. This means that Graphene cannot be 'turned-off', and so you can't use it for active electronic devices such as switches and transistors.

Foa Torres predicts that shining a mid-infrared laser on graphene can produce band gaps in its electronic structure, and this band gap could be tuned by controlling the laser polarization. The next crucial step is experimental verification.

via Physorg