Achievement

IGERT Fellow Mark Levendorf is developing new fabrication methods for devices made from a single atomic layer of graphite or "graphene." Levendorf and his colleagues recently demonstrated a simple method for producing graphene transistors on a large scale. This work, published in Nano Letters, is an important step towards the incorporation of graphene into existing device-processing technologies -- a requirement for any new material that is to be used on an industrial scale. They are now developing dry chemical etches that are more gentle than their initial approach with the hopes of increasing device yield while also enabling more complex devices. Their ultimate goal is the fabrication of atomically thin graphene "windows" over an entire silicon wafer. These electron-transparent windows would enable new forms of high-resolution microscopy in aqueous environments.