Porous Graphene Ribbons Have Semiconducting Properties of Interest for Applications in Quantum Computing

(Phys.org) A team of physicists and chemists has produced the first porous graphene ribbons in which specific carbon atoms in the crystal lattice are replaced with nitrogen atoms. These ribbons have semiconducting properties that make them attractive for applications in electronics and quantum computing, as reported by researchers from the Universities of Basel, Bern, Lancaster and Warwick.
Using scanning tunneling microscopy, the scientists from the Department of Physics and the Swiss Nanoscience Institute (SNI) at the University of Basel also demonstrated that these new graphene ribbons were no longer electrical conductors, like pure graphene, but actually behaved as semiconductors. Colleagues from the Universities of Bern and Warwick confirmed these findings by performing theoretical calculations of the electronic properties. “The semiconducting properties are essential for the potential applications in electronics, as their conductivity can be adjusted specifically,” says Dr. Rémy Pawlak, first author of the study.
Ernst Meyer. “In the future, the ribbons could therefore be of interest for applications in quantum computing.”