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A Transistor of Graphene Nanoribbons: Breakthrough in Nanoelectronics

The microscopic ribbons lie criss-crossed on the gold substrate. Credit: EMPA

The microscopic ribbons lie criss-crossed on the gold substrate. Credit: EMPA

Transistors based on carbon nanostructures: what sounds like a futuristic dream could be reality in just a few years’ time. Scientists have now produced nanotransistors from graphene ribbons that are only a few atoms wide. Graphene ribbons have special electrical properties that make them promising candidates for the nanoelectronics of the future: While graphene is a conductive material, it can become a semiconductor in the form of nanoribbons. This means that it 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.

The smallest details in the atomic structure of these graphene bands, however, have m...

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