From developing more sustainable computer chips to advancing quantum and high-performance computing, the new frontier of nanoelectronics could lie with graphene, a material related to ordinary pencil graphite that’s made from a single sheet of carbon atoms.
One physicist helping lead this charge is Amira Bencherif, a postdoctoral researcher in the Epigraphene Lab at Georgia Tech, which aims to advance electronics past the limitations of silicon using graphene’s extraordinary electrical properties.
Bencherif has just been awarded a prestigious European Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) global post-doctoral fellowship; This year, it is expected that fewer than 20% of applicants will be selected from a record pool of over 10,000 submissions.
The highly selective fellowship will support two additional years of research at Georgia Tech with The Epigraphene Lab, followed by Bencherif working for one year at the CEA-PHELIQS Lab in Grenoble, France.
“The research in Grenoble is a critical component,” Bencherif explains. “Our Georgia Tech team brings the graphene expertise, and the CEA-PHELIQS Lab brings expertise in extreme low-temperature research. Combining these two areas will let me investigate graphene properties at extreme low temperatures, for the first time.”
The group hopes the research will lead to breakthroughs in sustainable electronics and manufacturing. “We already know that epigraphene can be used as either as a conductor or as an ultra-high mobility semiconductor,” Bencherif says. “We're still in the fundamental research phase with this new project, but combining both properties of this material on a single chip could result in very fast electronics, very small devices, and more sustainable computing.”
Growing graphene
The fellowship builds on a longstanding partnership. “We've collaborated with our French partners on previous papers, and we have a great line of communication and trust,” shares Claire Berger, who works in the Epigraphene Lab directed by Regents' Professor Walter de Heer at Georgia Tech. “This prestigious fellowship is a recognition not only of Amira’s skills, talent and dedication as a researcher, but also of the quality of the epigraphene scientific program and the strength of the French-American collaboration.”
Berger, who serves as a professor of the practice at Georgia Tech, recently received one of France’s highest civilian honors in science and scientific diplomacy, the Chevalier dans L'ordre des Palmes Académiques. She is also the Director of Research at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) International Research Lab, which has a main presence at Georgia Tech-Europe in Metz, France, as well as a mirror site at Georgia Tech’s Atlanta campus.
“To advance this field, collaboration is crucial,” Berger says. “We cannot do it alone — the MSCA support for Amira’s work is both a testament to her hard work and the important partnership with our French counterparts.”
The future of graphene
One key aspect of the Epigraphene Lab’s research involves developing a graphene semiconductor ten times more conductive than silicon that has the potential to create a new kind of electronics.
“Complementing its semiconducting property, some form of epigraphene has special pathways which make electronic mobility extremely high,” Bencherif explains. “This has benefits like less energy dissipation, which is important for addressing global warming and energy challenges. We use epigraphene — which is graphene grown on a silicon carbide substrate — to make electrical devices and study their electrical properties.”
“We also suspect we can use another mode of communication with current, based on the wave quantum nature of the electron, leading to coherent electronics,” which Berger shares is a long-term research project the group is pursuing.
“This type of work is very prospective and ambitious, which is why Amira was granted this prestigious fellowship,” Berger adds. “This type of research is a lot of hard work. To drive this work forward, Amira has put in an astonishing number of hours and a lot of thoughtful effort. She's incredibly creative, and it's an honor to work with her.”
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Claire Berger holds a graphene device grown on a silicon carbide substrate chip. Credit: Jess Hunt-Ralston
