Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-07-tunable-quantum-behavior-bilayer-graphene.html#jCp
Columbia researchers have observed the fractional quantum Hall effect in bilayer graphene and shown that this exotic state of matter can be tuned by an electric field.
The fractional quantum Hall effect, which can occur when electrons confined to thin sheets are exposed to large magnetic fields, is a striking example of collective behavior where thousands of individual electrons behave as a single system. However, while the basic theory describing this effect is well established, many details of this collective behavior remain not well understood, in part because it is only observable in systems with extremely low disorder.
Graphene, an atomically thin sheet of carbon, is a promising material for study of the fractional quantum Hall effect both because it can it be a nearly defect-free crystal, and because researchers can 'tune' the charge density with an external metal 'gate' electrode and observe how the quantum states evolve in response. Over the past several years, a collaborative effort at Columbia University spanning researchers from Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Physics, developed a series of breakthrough fabrication techniques in order to take advantage of this opportunity, allowing them to report the first observation of the fractional quantum Hall effect in graphene in 2009, and the first wide-range tuning of the effect in 2011.