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Graphene

Carbon's superconducting footprint

Nature Physics volume 8, pages 111–112 (2012)Cite this article

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Graphene exhibits many extraordinary properties, but superconductivity isn't one of them. Two theoretical studies suggest that by decorating the surface of graphene with the right species of dopant atoms, or by using ionic liquid gating, superconductivity could yet be induced.

Graphene's remarkable electronic properties have captured the imagination of physicists. A combination of the interference of non-relativistic electron wavefunctions propagating through graphene's honeycomb potential, and the Pauli exclusion principle, gives rise to low-energy quasiparticles that behave as relativistic massless Dirac fermions. Unlike conventional massless particles, graphene's Dirac fermions travel several hundred times slower than light. Most importantly, they are charged, which enables them to be manipulated with electric and magnetic fields, leading to the observation of some spectacular quantum phenomena, such as the occurrence of the quantum Hall effect at room temperature1. Unfortunately, the character of these charge carriers hinders the emergence of another macroscopic manifestation of quantum mechanics — superconductivity. Writing in Nature Physics, two groups propose two different means by which it might yet be possible to induce superconductivity in graphene2,3.

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  1. Oskar Vafek is in the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and Department of Physics, Florida State University, 1800 East Paul Dirac Drive, Tallahassee, Florida 32310-3706, USA,

    Oskar Vafek

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  1. Oskar Vafek
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Correspondence to Oskar Vafek.

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Vafek, O. Carbon's superconducting footprint. Nature Phys 8, 111–112 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2223

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