Graphite pencilled in for circuits

Graphite could be the basis for a new class of nanometre-scale electronic devices that have the properties of carbon nanotubes but could be produced using established microelectronics manufacturing techniques.

Using thin layers of graphite known as graphene, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US, working with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France, have produced proof-of-principle transistors, loop devices and circuitry. Ultimately, the researchers hope to use graphene layers less than 10 atoms thick as the basis for revolutionary electronic systems that would manipulate electrons as waves rather than particles, much like photonic systems control light waves.

"We expect to make devices of a kind that don't really have an analogue in silicon-based electronics, so this is an entirely different way of looking at electronics," said Walt de Heer, a professor in Georgia Tech's School of Physics. "Our ultimate goal is integrated electronic structures that work on diffraction of electrons rather than diffusion of electrons. This will allow the production of very small devices with very high efficiencies and low power consumption."