The Magic Kingdom of imperfect graphene

Abstract

Graphene is a name given to the thinnest material manufacturable on record, which is made of a monolayer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice. The discovery of graphene has led to the award of at least two Nobel Prizes in Physics within a short timespan. This article discusses the magic applications, brought by the imperfect graphene, which were thought to be impossible. It focuses on the recent demonstrations of graphene electronics that operation mechanisms rely on defects in graphene. In applications such as graphene-silicon technology, twistronics, spintronics, and biomedical electronics, imperfections in graphene are at the center of technology advancements. Appreciable imperfections in graphene vary from dopants, folding, stacking mismatch to atomic-level defects. Bulky volume defects like ad-atom clustering compromise the benefit of graphene in terms of thinness. In short, for new materials such as graphene, it is important that researchers understand, explore, and use the accessible materials on hand rather than pursuing scalable materials with perfection.