Graphene: a Quantum of Current

When current comes in discrete packages: Viennese scientists unravel the quantum properties of the carbon material graphene. In 2010 the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded for the discovery of the exceptional material graphene, which consists of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice. But graphene research did not stop there. New interesting properties of this material are still being found. An international team of researchers has now explained the peculiar behaviour of electrons moving through narrow constrictions in a graphene layer. The Electron is a Wave - 'When electrical current flows through graphene, we should not imagine the electrons as little balls rolling through the material', says Florian Libisch from TU Wien (Vienna), who led the theoretical part of the research project. The electrons swash through the graphene as a long wave front, the wavelength can be a hundred times larger than the space between two adjacent carbon atoms.