Room-temperature electric field effect and carrier-type inversion in graphene films

Abstract

The ability to control electronic properties of a material by externally applied voltage is at the heart of modern electronics. In many cases, it is the so-called electric field effect that allows one to vary the carrier concentration in a semiconductor device and, consequently, change an electric current through it. As the semiconductor industry is nearing the limits of performance improvements for the current technologies dominated by silicon, there is a constant search for new, non-traditional materials whose properties can be controlled by electric field. Most notable examples of such materials developed recently are organic conductors [1], oxides near a superconducting or magnetic phase transition [2] and carbon nanotubes [3-5]. Here, we describe another system of this kind - thin monocrystalline films of graphite - which exhibits a pronounced electric field effect, such that carriers in the conductive channel can be turned into either electrons or holes. The films remain metallic, continuous and of high quality down to a few atomic layers in thickness. The demonstrated ease of preparing such films of nearly macroscopic sizes and of their processing by standard microfabrication techniques, combined with submicron-scale ballistic transport even at room temperature, offer a new two-dimensional system controllable by electric-field doping and provide a realistic promise of device applications.

This is a paper submitted to Nature on Feb 5, 2004. Our latest report in Science (cond-mat 0410550) covers more ground but we had several inquiries in recent days, concerning the earlier results on thicker graphitic films, as the Nature e-preprint seems to diffuse much wider than we expected. The earlier manuscript contains significant information not covered by Science