A studied by SISSA revealed that these nanostructures would allow exploitation of quantum effects to modulate the current flow. The intrinsic magnetic properties could also be used to make further progress in spintronics.
SISSA said that it observed two key phenomena through its analysis of graphene nanoflakes. The first is that in nanoflakes, the electronis interfere with each other in a destructive manner if the current is measured in a certain configuration.
This means that there is no transmission of current – a typical quantum phenomenon, which occurs in very reduced sizes. What the researchers have suggested is that it is possible to bring this reaction to larger systems and therefore, into the nano world and to a scale that is observable and can be exploited for nanoelectronic applications.
In quantum interference transistors, the researchers explained that destructive interference would be the ‘OFF’ status. While for ‘ON’ status, the team said it is sufficient to remove the conditions for interference to enable current flow.
The magnetic properties presented by the nanoflakes, the researchers said, emerge spontaneously at their edges, without external intervention, enabling the creation of a spin current.
Together with quantum interference, the researchers believe these effects will allow almost complete spin polarisation.
These properties could be used, for example, in the memorising and processing information technologies, interpreting the spin as binary code. The team believe the electron spin, being quantised and having only two possible configurations (which they referred to as ‘up’ and ‘down’) would be well suited for this kind of implementation.
To improve the efficiency of the possible device and the percentage of current polarisation, the researchers developed a protocol that is said to envisage the interaction of the graphene flakes with a surface made of nitrogen and boron.
“The results obtained are really interesting,” Massimo Capone, who led the project, concluded. “This evidence now awaits the experimental test, to confirm what we have theoretically predicted.”
