Layered graphene sandwich for next generation metamaterial based electronics

Sandwiching layers of graphene with white graphene could produce designer materials capable of creating high-frequency electronic devices, University of Manchester scientists have found.

Writing in Nature Nanotechnology, the researchers have demonstrated how combining the two-dimensional materials in a stack could create perfect crystals capable of being used in next generation transistors.

Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), otherwise known as white graphene, is one of a family of two-dimension materials discovered in the wake of the isolation of graphene at the University in 2004. Manchester researchers have previously demonstrated how combining 2D materials, in stacks called heterostructures, could lead to materials capable of being designed to meet industrial demands.

Now, for the first time, the team has demonstrated that the electronic behaviour of the heterostructures can be changed enormously by precisely controlling the orientation of the crystalline layers within the stacks.