Showing papers by "Irina V. Grigorieva published in 2015"

Square ice in graphene nanocapillaries

Abstract: Bulk water exists in many forms, including liquid, vapour and numerous crystalline and amorphous phases of ice, with hexagonal ice being responsible for the fascinating variety of snowflakes Much less noticeable but equally ubiquitous is water adsorbed at interfaces and confined in microscopic pores Such low-dimensional water determines aspects of various phenomena in materials science, geology, biology, tribology and nanotechnology Theory suggests many possible phases for adsorbed and confined water, but it has proved challenging to assess its crystal structure experimentally Here we report high-resolution electron microscopy imaging of water locked between two graphene sheets, an archetypal example of hydrophobic confinement The observations show that the nanoconfined water at room temperature forms 'square ice'--a phase having symmetry qualitatively different from the conventional tetrahedral geometry of hydrogen bonding between water molecules Square ice has a high packing density with a lattice constant of 283 A and can assemble in bilayer and trilayer crystallites Molecular dynamics simulations indicate that square ice should be present inside hydrophobic nanochannels independently of their exact atomic nature

Quality Heterostructures from Two-Dimensional Crystals Unstable in Air by Their Assembly in Inert Atmosphere

Abstract: Many layered materials can be cleaved down to individual atomic planes, similar to graphene, but only a small minority of them are stable under ambient conditions. The rest react and decompose in air, which has severely hindered their investigation and potential applications. Here we introduce a remedial approach based on cleavage, transfer, alignment, and encapsulation of air-sensitive crystals, all inside a controlled inert atmosphere. To illustrate the technology, we choose two archetypal two-dimensional crystals that are of intense scientific interest but are unstable in air: black phosphorus and niobium diselenide. Our field-effect devices made from their monolayers are conductive and fully stable under ambient conditions, which is in contrast to the counterparts processed in air. NbSe2 remains superconducting down to the monolayer thickness. Starting with a trilayer, phosphorene devices reach sufficiently high mobilities to exhibit Landau quantization. The approach offers a venue to significantly ex...

Graphene spintronics: the European Flagship perspective

Abstract: We review current challenges and perspectives in graphene spintronics, which is one of the most promising directions of innovation, given its room-temperature long-spin lifetimes and the ability of graphene to be easily interfaced with other classes of materials (ferromagnets, magnetic insulators, semiconductors, oxides, etc), allowing proximity effects to be harvested. The general context of spintronics is first discussed together with open issues and recent advances achieved by the Graphene Spintronics Work Package consortium within the Graphene Flagship project. Based on such progress, which establishes the state of the art, several novel opportunities for spin manipulation such as the generation of pure spin current (through spin Hall effect) and the control of magnetization through the spin torque phenomena appear on the horizon. Practical applications are within reach, but will require the demonstration of wafer-scale graphene device integration, and the realization of functional prototypes employed for determined applications such as magnetic sensors or nano-oscillators. This is a specially commissioned editorial from the Graphene Flagship Work Package on Spintronics. This editorial is part of the 2D Materials focus collection on 'Progress on the science and applications of two-dimensional materials,' published in association with the Graphene Flagship. It provides an overview of key recent advances of the spintronics work package as well as the mid-term objectives of the consortium.

Superconductivity in Ca-doped graphene

Abstract: Graphene, a zero-gap semimetal, can be transformed into a metallic, semiconducting or insulating state by either physical or chemical modification. Superconductivity is conspicuously missing among these states despite considerable experimental efforts as well as many theoretical proposals. Here, we report superconductivity in calcium-decorated graphene achieved by intercalation of graphene laminates that consist of well separated and electronically decoupled graphene crystals. In contrast to intercalated graphite, we find that Ca is the only dopant that induces superconductivity in graphene laminates above 1.8 K among intercalants used in our experiments such as potassium, caesium and lithium. Ca-decorated graphene becomes superconducting at ~ 6 K and the transition temperature is found to be strongly dependent on the confinement of the Ca layer and the induced charge carrier concentration. In addition to the first evidence for superconducting graphene, our work shows a possibility of inducing and studying superconductivity in other 2D materials using their laminates.

Sieving hydrogen isotopes through two dimensional crystals

Abstract: One-atom-thick crystals are impermeable to atoms and molecules, but hydrogen ions (thermal protons) penetrate through them. We show that monolayers of graphene and boron nitride can be used to separate hydrogen ion isotopes. Employing electrical measurements and mass spectrometry, we find that deuterons permeate through these crystals much slower than protons, resulting in a separation factor of ~10 at room temperature. The isotope effect is attributed to a difference of about 60 meV between zero-point energies of incident protons and deuterons, which translates into the equivalent difference in the activation barriers posed by two dimensional crystals. In addition to providing insight into the proton transport mechanism, the demonstrated approach offers a competitive and scalable way for hydrogen isotope enrichment.