Our group studies epigraphene (graphene grown on silicon carbide) with the ultimate goal of advancing electronics past the limitations of silicon. We grow and manipulate epigraphene to investigate its unique electronic properties.
Semiconducting Epigraphene
The first viable, ultra-high mobility semiconductor made from graphene.
Graphene Edge States
Zero energy edge states at the edges of epigraphene ribbons that have mean free paths in the hundreds of microns, exhibit no Hall effect, and are caused by a new quasiparticle.
Hexagonal Boron Nitride on Epigraphene
A lateral epitaxial deposition process compatible with wafer scale transfer-free boron-nitride–graphene integration.
Epigraphene is grown on silicon carbide (SiC), a wide bandgap semiconductor that is commercially available and in use in the electronics industry. When silicon carbide is heated to high temperatures in ultrahigh vacuum, graphene forms on its surface.
This idea forms the basis for the confinement controlled sublimation (CCS) method that we use to make epigraphene. This method has many parameters we can consistently adjust (SiC chip face, crucible geometry, temperature of growth, time of growth, ambient gas) to make high-quality epigraphene with various electronic properties. We can grow monolayer graphene on the Si-face and non-polar faces, and multilayer graphene on the C-face.
(de Heer et al. 2011, PNAS and Berger et al. 2016, Graphene Growth on Semiconductors)
Our lab has been at the forefront of research into the science and technology of epigraphene since 2001. In our two decades of research, we have demonstrated many of graphene’s fundamental and technologically important properties. Our work includes
- the first transport measurements on monolayer graphene,
- ultrahigh-mobility semiconductors,
- the first measurement of graphene’s band structure,
- weak anti-localization,
- coherence and quantum confinement effects,
- ballistic quantized transport with evidence for a new quasiparticle,
- chemical modification,
- electrostatic gating,
- spin diffusion length larger than 250 microns,
- 100 GHz high-frequency transistors,
- and large-scale integration.
News
May 2024: Undergraduate research assistant Zhihan Wei was awarded the Letson Summer Internship from Georgia Tech’s School of Physics. The award will pay her a stipend to do full-time research in the Epigraphene lab during the summer.
May 2024: One of the graduate students in our lab, Will Griffin, won the Outstanding Graduate Physics Teaching Assistant award for the 2024 Spring semester.
May 5th, 2024: Georgia Tech’s Spring 2024 commencement showed a video about our paper on semiconducing epigraphene.
April 15th, 2024: Prof. Claire Berger was made a Knight of the Ordre des Palmes académiques by the French government, one of the highest French civilian awards for science and science diplomacy. Full story here.
January 2024: Undergraduate research assistant Zhihan Wei was awarded the President’s Undergraduate Research Award (PURA) award for the Spring 2024 semester.