Tuesday, October 5, 2010

It's out - congratulations!!!

At least once every year, some physics researches have an uneasy sleep. That night has just passed, and the Nobel Prize 2010 in Physics was awarded to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov of Manchester University "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene". Congratulations!!! For the last few years I have been listening to a lot of talks on graphene physics, mostly in Alberto Morpurgo's group in Delft, but also at conferences by the leads of the field, including the two stars of the day. While I have not always shared the unlimited enthusiasm for this material, it's physical properties are fascinating indeed. And since Samsung has recently demonstrated the roll-to-roll production of 30-inch graphene films for transparent electrodes (free preprint version) and a touch screen panel with a graphene electrode worked on the very first attempt, the technical usability has been proven. For mesoscopic physics, now only the question of clean edges and boundary conditions remains to be solved. Maybe we should just roll these graphene sheets up and form tubes? :o)

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