Graphene: from materials science to particle physics

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Since its discovery in 2004, graphene, a two-dimensional hexagonal carbon allotrope, has generated great interest and spurred research activity from materials science to particle physics and vice versa.

• In particular, graphene has been found to exhibit outstanding electronic and mechanical properties, as well as an unusual low-energy spectrum of Dirac quasiparticles giving rise to a fractional quantum Hall effect when freely suspended and immersed in a magnetic field.
• One of the most intriguing puzzles of graphene involves the low-temperature conductivity at zero density, a central issue in the design of graphene-based nanoelectronic components.
• While suspended graphene experiments have shown a trend reminiscent of semiconductors, with rising resistivity at low temperatures, most theories predict a constant or even decreasing resistivity.