Graphene, shown to enable tunable photonics, promises light generation from THz to IR

June 15, 2009--Because they are based on silicon and gallium arsenide semiconductors, standard transistors and light emitting diodes (LEDs) have fixed electronic and optical properties. But University of California, Berkeley, researchers have shown that graphene can be used to make tunable photonics and electronic devices, thanks to the fact that its electronic structure can be controlled by an electrical field. While such properties were predicted for a double layer of graphene, this is the first demonstration that bilayer graphene exhibits an electric field-induced, broadly tunable bandgap, according to Feng Wang, assistant professor of physics.