Carbon Based Materials

Carbon is the most important element for all living organisms in Earth, as most of the organic elements are made out of it.  A unique and fascinating aspect of carbon is the variety of forms that it can assume when two or more atoms are brought together. 

Our research focus on understanding the unique role that topology plays for the electronic properties of carbon materials, and in understanding the role of the electron-electron and electron-phonon interaction.  We are also interested in further exploring superconductivity and magnetism in these systems.  On a more applied level we are exploring different carbon complex as candidate for the hydrogen storage economy.  To learn more about specific projects, please follow these links:

• Graphite and graphene

• Graphite intercalation compounds

• Fullerenes and carbon nanotubes

• Diamondoids

After so many years of studying carbon, mystery still remains surrounding the question of how many crystallographic forms, or allotropes, of carbon exist.  The known forms of carbon are graphene, graphite, diamond, nanotubes, fullerenes (C60, C36….), and nanodiamondoids, each of them characterized by different hybrid orbitals (sp², sp³, sp).  A variety of novel properties can be observed as a function of topology of carbon leading to metal-insulator transitions, semiconductors, superconductivity and magnetism. 
 

Selected Publications (please see Publications for a more complete list)

Metal to insulator transition in epitaxial graphene induced by molecular doping

S.Y. Zhou, D.A. Siegel, A.V. Federov and A. Lanzara

Phys. Rev. Lett. accepted (2008).

Origin of the energy bandgap in epitaxial graphene

S.Y. Zhou, D.A. Siegel, A.V. Fedorov, F. El Gabaly, A.K. Schmid, A.H. Castro Neto, D.-H. Lee, A. Lanzara

Nature Materials 7, 259-260 (2008).

Substrate-induced band gap opening in epitaxial graphene

S.Y. Zhou, G.-H. Gweon, A.V. Fedorov, P.N. First, W.A. der Heer, D.-H. Lee, F. Guinea, A.H. Castro Neto, A. Lanzara

Nature Materials 6, 770 (2007), preprint at cond-mat/0709.1976

Direct observation of Dirac fermions in graphite

S. Y. Zhou, G.-H. Gweon, J. Graf, A. V. Fedorov, C. D. Spataru, R.D. Diehl, Y. Kopelevich, D.-H. Lee, Steven G. Louie, A. Lanzara

Nature Physics 2, 595 (2006), preprint at cond-mat/0608069

Band structure and fermi surface of electron doped C₆₀ monolayers
W. L. Yang, V. Brouet, X. J. Zhou, H. J. Choi, S. G. Louie, M. L. Cohen, S. A. Kellar, P. V. Bogdanov, A. Lanzara, A. Goldoni, F. Parmigiani, Z. Hussain, Z. X. Shen
Science 300, 303-307 (2003)