Source: Science Daily, November 29, 2017
Graphene becomes a semiconductor in the form of nanoribbons which has a sufficiently large energy or band gap in which no electron states can exist: it can be turned on and off — and thus may become a key component of nanotransistors. However, graphene ribbons with irregular edges may not exhibit the desired electrical properties. An international team of researchers (USA – UC Berkeley, Switzerland) succeeded in growing ribbons exactly nine atoms wide with a regular armchair edge from precursor molecules. After several process steps, they formed the desired nanoribbons of about one nanometer in width and up to 50 nanometers in length and integrate it into nanotransistors. Research is a breakthrough in nanoelectronics… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
The microscopic ribbons lie criss-crossed on the gold substrate.
Credit: EMPA