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By flinging carbon atoms at a nickel film, researchers have succeeded in generating specific numbers of layers of graphene — atomically thick sheets of carbon that promise to surpass silicon as a material in electronic devices. Different thicknesses have markedly different properties, but controlling thickness is a challenge for current production techniques, with some able to generate only single layers.
Jene Golovchenko and his colleagues at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, accelerated carbon atoms in an electric field and deposited doses corresponding to the amount needed for one-, two- or three-layered graphene onto nickel sheets. When heated, the carbon formed graphene of the specified thickness.
Because the underlying technology used in this method is already widespread in the fabrication of semiconductors, it could be easily used for large-scale graphene production.
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Materials science: Graphene layers made to order. Nature 469, 135 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/469135e
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/469135e
