Development of novel conduction control technique for graphene

Researchers at the Nanoelectronics Research Institute of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), in joint work with a NIMS team headed by Dr Kazuhito Tsukagoshi, a MANA Principal Investigator at the NIMS International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, have developed a novel technique for controlling the electrical conductivity of graphene.

In the technique developed, a helium ion beam is irradiated on graphene using a helium ion microscope to artificially introduce a low concentration of crystal defects, and it becomes possible to modulate the movement of electrons and holes in the graphene by applying a voltage to the gate electrode. Although this phenomenon of conduction control by introduction of crystal defects had been predicted theoretically, there were no examples in which on/off operation at room temperature was achieved experimentally. It is possible to introduce the technique developed in this work in the existing framework of production technology, including large area wafers.