Matteo Bruna

High performance bilayer-graphene terahertz detectors

We report bilayer-graphene field effect transistors operating as Terahertz (THz) broadband photodetectors based on plasma-waves excitation. By employing wide-gate geometries or buried gate configurations, we achieve a responsivity ∼1.2 V/W (1.3 mA/W) and a noise equivalent power ∼2 × 10−9 W/√Hz in the 0.29–0.38 THz range, in photovoltage and photocurrent mode. The potential of this technology for scalability to higher frequencies and the development of flexible devices makes our approach competitive for a future generation of THz detection systems.

High Responsivity, Large-Area Graphene/MoS2 Flexible Photodetectors

We present flexible photodetectors (PDs) for visible wavelengths fabricated by stacking centimeter-scale chemical vapor deposited (CVD) single layer graphene (SLG) and single layer CVD MoS2, both wet transferred onto a flexible polyethylene terephthalate substrate. The operation mechanism relies on injection of photoexcited electrons from MoS2 to the SLG channel. The external responsivity is 45.5A/W and the internal 570A/W at 642 nm. This is at least 2 orders of magnitude higher than bulk-semiconductor flexible membranes. The photoconductive gain is up to 4 × 105. The photocurrent is in the 0.1–100 μA range. The devices are semitransparent, with 8% absorptance at 642 nm, and are stable upon bending to a curvature of 1.4 cm. These capabilities and the low-voltage operation (<1 V) make them attractive for wearable applications.

Anomalous low-temperature Coulomb drag in graphene-GaAs heterostructures.

A. Gamucci, D. Spirito, M. Carrega, B. Karmakar, A. Lombardo, M. Bruna, A.C. Ferrari, L.N. Pfeiffer, K.W. West, M. Polini, ∗ and V. Pellegrini 1, † NEST, Istituto Nanoscienze-CNR and Scuola Normale Superiore, I-56126 Pisa, Italy Engineering Department, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB3 OFA, UK Department of Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Graphene labs, Via Morego 30, I-16163 Genova, ItalyVertical heterostructures combining different layered materials offer novel opportunities for applications and fundamental studies. Here we report a new class of heterostructures comprising a single-layer (or bilayer) graphene in close proximity to a quantum well created in GaAs and supporting a high-mobility two-dimensional electron gas. In our devices, graphene is naturally hole-doped, thereby allowing for the investigation of electron-hole interactions. We focus on the Coulomb drag transport measurements, which are sensitive to many-body effects, and find that the Coulomb drag resistivity significantly increases for temperatures <5-10 K. The low-temperature data follow a logarithmic law, therefore displaying a notable departure from the ordinary quadratic temperature dependence expected in a weakly correlated Fermi-liquid. This anomalous behaviour is consistent with the onset of strong interlayer correlations. Our heterostructures represent a new platform for the creation of coherent circuits and topologically protected quantum bits.

Light-Enhanced Liquid-Phase Exfoliation and Current Photoswitching in Graphene-Azobenzene Composites

Multifunctional materials can be engineered by combining multiple chemical components, each conferring a well-defined function to the ensemble. Graphene is at the centre of an ever-growing research effort due to its combination of unique properties. Here we show that the large conformational change associated with the trans–cis photochemical isomerization of alkyl-substituted azobenzenes can be used to improve the efficiency of liquid-phase exfoliation of graphite, with the photochromic molecules acting as dispersion-stabilizing agents. We also demonstrate reversible photo-modulated current in two-terminal devices based on graphene–azobenzene composites. We assign this tuneable electrical characteristics to the intercalation of the azobenzene between adjacent graphene layers and the resulting increase in the interlayer distance on (photo)switching from the linear trans-form to the bulky cis-form of the photochromes. These findings pave the way to the development of new optically controlled memories for light-assisted programming and high-sensitive photosensors.

Raman Fingerprints of Atomically Precise Graphene Nanoribbons.

Bottom-up approaches allow the production of ultranarrow and atomically precise graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) with electronic and optical properties controlled by the specific atomic structure. Combining Raman spectroscopy and ab initio simulations, we show that GNR width, edge geometry, and functional groups all influence their Raman spectra. The low-energy spectral region below 1000 cm–1 is particularly sensitive to edge morphology and functionalization, while the D peak dispersion can be used to uniquely fingerprint the presence of GNRs and differentiates them from other sp2 carbon nanostructures.

Liquid-Phase Exfoliation of Graphite into Single- and Few-Layer Graphene with α-Functionalized Alkanes

Graphene has unique physical and chemical properties, making it appealing for a number of applications in optoelectronics, sensing, photonics, composites, and smart coatings, just to cite a few. These require the development of production processes that are inexpensive and up-scalable. These criteria are met in liquid-phase exfoliation (LPE), a technique that can be enhanced when specific organic molecules are used. Here we report the exfoliation of graphite in N-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone, in the presence of heneicosane linear alkanes terminated with different head groups. These molecules act as stabilizing agents during exfoliation. The efficiency of the exfoliation in terms of the concentration of exfoliated single- and few-layer graphene flakes depends on the functional head group determining the strength of the molecular dimerization through dipole-dipole interactions. A thermodynamic analysis is carried out to interpret the impact of the termination group of the alkyl chain on the exfoliation yield. This combines molecular dynamics and molecular mechanics to rationalize the role of functionalized alkanes in the dispersion and stabilization process, which is ultimately attributed to a synergistic effect of the interactions between the molecules, graphene, and the solvent.

Temperature dependence of electric transport in few-layer graphene under large charge doping induced by electrochemical gating.

The temperature dependence of electric transport properties of single-layer and few-layer graphene at large charge doping is of great interest both for the study of the scattering processes dominating the conductivity at different temperatures and in view of the theoretically predicted possibility to reach the superconducting state in such extreme conditions. Here we present the results obtained in 3-, 4- and 5-layer graphene devices down to 3.5 K, where a large surface charge density up to about 6.8·1014 cm−2 has been reached by employing a novel polymer electrolyte solution for the electrochemical gating. In contrast with recent results obtained in single-layer graphene, the temperature dependence of the sheet resistance between 20 K and 280 K shows a low-temperature dominance of a T2 component – that can be associated with electron-electron scattering – and, at about 100 K, a crossover to the classic electron-phonon regime. Unexpectedly, this crossover does not show any dependence on the induced charge density, i.e. on the large tuning of the Fermi energy.

Carrier mobility and scattering lifetime in electric double-layer gated few-layer graphene

We fabricate electric double-layer field-effect transistor (EDL-FET) devices on mechanically exfoliated few-layer graphene. We exploit the large capacitance of a polymeric electrolyte to study the transport properties of three, four and five-layer samples under a large induced surface charge density both above and below the glass transition temperature of the polymer. We find that the carrier mobility shows a strong asymmetry between the hole and electron doping regime. We then employ ab initio density functional theory (DFT) calculations to determine the average scattering lifetime from the experimental data. We explain its peculiar dependence on the carrier density in terms of the specific properties of the electrolyte we used in our experiments.

Weak Localization in Electric-Double-Layer Gated Few-layer Graphene

We induce surface carrier densities up to ~ 7 · 10

Ultrafast valley depolarization dynamics in monolayer MoS 2

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