The Danish National Research Foundation (Danmarks Grundforskningsfond) finances Center of Excellence ”Holey Graphene” to be launched at DTU Nanotech!
DNRF has decided to support a center focusing on nanostructured graphene with up to 54 MDKK during a period of six years, starting January 1, 2012, with a possible extension of four years. The center will be led by Prof. Antti-Pekka Jauho, who is joined by DTU Nanotech colleagues Kristoffer Almdal, Peter Bøggild, Mads Brandbyge, Anders Kristensen, and Sokol Ndoni, as well as Niels Asger Mortensen (DTU Fotonik), Kristian Thygesen (DTU Fysik), and Thomas Garm Pedersen (Aalborg University). Essential support will be provided by DTU Cen.
The key word in the Center’s future work is “control”: The aim is to steer and guide the charge carriers in graphene so that new physical phenomena can be examined, and devices with new functionalities can be realized. The required control can be achieved, for example, by perforating a pristine graphene flake with regular nanoscale holes (“Holey graphene”) : This nanostructuring will modify the electronic properties of graphene towards the desired direction. One of the major challenges is to learn how to make these holes with sufficient regularity without jeopardizing graphene’s other properties. Another key element is that the entire “food-chain” is already present at DTU: We know how to grow graphene, how to fabricate the polymer masks needed in the nanostructuring, how to process the perforated graphene sheets into devices, and, finally, how to characterize and perform measurements on them. The lab work will be spearheaded by extensive theoretical modeling, where new ideas can be tested before bringing them in the lab.