Walferdange, Luxembourg--Researchers from the University of Luxembourg, the IEMN-Department of ISEN (Lille, France), Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme (Dresden, Germany), and the University of Utrecht (Utrecht, The Netherlands) have done a theoretical study of what is called "artificial graphene" -- a 2D hexagonal sheet of matter that, rather than graphene's carbon, is made of nanocrystals of traditional semiconductor materials.1 They believe that artificial graphene has potential for use in lasers, LEDs, and photovoltaics, as well as in electronics.
The researchers studied structures with a lattice period of below 10 nm, finding that they can have conventional semiconductor properties combined with so-called Dirac bands (which, in graphene, lead to ballistic electrons). Semiconductors in the study included rocksalt lead chalcogenides and zinc-blende cadmium chalcogenide.
Advances in colloidal assembly will allow artificial graphene to be fabricated, say the researchers. "Artificial graphene opens the door to a wide variety of materials with variable nanogeometry and tunable properties," notes University of Luxembourg scientist Efterpi Kalesaki.
REFERENCE:
1. E. Kalesaki et al., Physical Review Letters (2014); doi: 10.1103/PhysRevX.4.011010
