The Carbon New Age

TL;DR

Graphene's exceptional electronic and structural properties position it as a revolutionary material with potential to surpass traditional semiconductors, prompting a re-evaluation of metallic theory and heralding a new technological era.

Contribution

This paper highlights graphene's unique properties and discusses its implications for future electronics and fundamental physics.

Findings

Graphene exhibits massless, relativistic charge carriers.

It surpasses conventional semiconductors in electronic properties.

It challenges existing theories of metals.

Abstract

Graphene has been considered by many as a revolutionary material with electronic and structural properties that surpass conventional semiconductors and metals. Due to its superlative qualities, graphene is being considered as the reference material for a post-CMOS technology. Furthermore, graphene is also quite unusual electronically since its electric carriers behave as if they were massless and relativistic, the so-called Dirac particles. Because of its exotic electronic properties, theorists are being forced to revisit the conceptual basis for the theory of metals. Hence, graphene seems to be unveiling a new era in science and technology with still unseen consequences.