Nanoscale electric transformer made from stacked graphene sheets

Scientists from the University of Manchester, including Nobel prize-winner Professor Andre Geim constructed a multi-layer graphene structure made by placing individual sheets one on top of the other. This 'cake' like structure behaves like a nanoscale electric transformer - which could be used to make new electronic transistors and photonic detector devices.

In the new device, electrons moving in one metallic layer pull electrons in the second metallic layer by using their local electric fields. The layers are only separated by a tiny (few interatomic) distance - much shorter than anything done before. To achieve this structure they used just four atomic layers of boron nitride to serve as an electric insulator.

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Posted: Oct 15,2012 by Ron Mertens