The Physics of Graphene

Coordinators: Vladimir Falko, Francisco Guinea, Jeanie Lau, Antonio H. Castro Neto

Scientific Advisors: Andre Geim, Sankar Das Sarma, Allan MacDonald

The fact that a material made of just one or two layers of atoms can withstand harsh mechanical treatment, thermal annealing, ambient chemical conditions, and still conduct electricity is, by itself, enough to catch the attention of many scientists. In the last few years, an enormous development in the study of electronic transport in supported and suspended monolayer and bilayer graphene has taken place.  Simultaneously, significant advances in graphene technology have brought to light issues related to many-body interactions and broken symmetry phases, as with the recent demonstration of the fractional quantum Hall effect.  Other unique properties of graphene, such as the coupling between electrons and structural deformations, are just starting to be explored. New phenomena may emerge in multilayered systems where interactions between layers become important.  Important issues related to magnetism and superconductivity in graphene are coming to light, both in experiment and theory, and graphene has also been the system where new concepts, such as the quantum spin Hall effect, were initially studied.

This program will bring together researchers with interests in the electronic properties of graphene but approaching graphene research from various directions, such as quantum field theory, microscopy and phenomenology of strong correlations, statistical mechanics, quantum transport and mesoscopic effects, computational physics, and device modelling. Some of the highlights of the program will be:

  • Electron-electron interactions. Broken symmetry phases in monolayer and bilayer graphene. Gauge theories on the honeycomb lattice Fermi surface driven instabilities. Magnetic field effects and strains.  Quantum Monte Carlo studies.
  • Electronic properties of multilayers.  Carrier chirality and non trivial phases. Twisted arrangements and stacking defects.
  • Modifications of the electronic structure by substrates and adatoms. Graphene in chemistry.  Adatom ordering.  Magnetism and Kondo effect. Role of sp3 coordination and spin-orbit coupling.
  • New devices and interdisciplinary aspects of graphene: Opto-electronic effects. High frequency transistors and NEMs. Spintronics.  Graphene based composite materials.  Electronic properties of ultrathin films of other layered materials.