Graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) are certainly interesting materials in their own rights, but combinations of the two can be more appealing. For example, when hBN is used as a substrate for graphene instead of silicon oxide, carrier mobilities increase 10-fold, giving mean free paths of over 1μm at room temperature. In double layer graphene devices, hBN can serve as an ultra-thin insulator between the two graphene layers - isolating them electrically, but allowing the layers to remain coupled via Coulomb interactions. Such hBN/graphene heterostructures may allow a variety of phenomena including exciton condensation.

This talk will describe the optical and Raman signatures [1] used for identifying mono- & few-layer hBN flakes and the subsequent steps for fabricating graphene/hBN devices. We will look at transport results from these devices that show a range of effects including tunnelling, micrometer-scale ballistic transport [2] and Coulomb drag.

[1] Gorbachev et al., Hunting for Monolayer Boron Nitride: Optical and Raman Signatures, Small (2011), http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smll.201001628
[2] Mayorov et al., Micrometer-Scale Ballistic Transport in Encapsulated Graphene at Room Temperature, Nano Letters (2011), http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/nl200758b


Peter Blake is the Managing Director of Graphene Industries and a postdoctoral researcher in the Condensed Matter Physics Group at the University of Manchester. Since 2004, he has been studying the optical & electronic properties of graphene and developing related micro-fabrication procedures. He is currently exploring potential uses of graphene for transparent conductive coating and membrane applications.