Electronic Properties and Transport Dynamics of Graphene Systems

Graphene’s two-dimensional honeycomb lattice endows it with massless Dirac fermions whose linear dispersion near the Fermi level underlies a host of extraordinary electronic phenomena. Charge carriers in graphene exhibit ultrahigh mobility, ballistic transport over micrometre scales and ambipolar conduction tunable by electrostatic gating. The interplay between symmetry-breaking perturbations, such as strain or periodic potentials, and intrinsic Dirac physics gives rise to novel transport regimes. Intervalley and intravalley scattering by defects or chemical adatoms can induce Kekulé bond textures and localised topological defects, modifying the density of states and enabling fractionalisation of charge. Out-of-equilibrium techniques, notably Floquet engineering via time-periodic fields, open pathways to light-induced band renormalisation and transient topological phases. Static screening by carriers leads to Friedel oscillations whose wave-vector–dependent patterns reflect layer stacking in bilayer systems and determine scattering lengths. Together, these effects define a rich landscape of electronic responses in graphene, with implications for quantum devices, valleytronics and ultrafast optoelectronics.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have directly imaged Kekulé vortices arising from intervalley scattering on hydrogen adatoms, confirming the 2π phase winding tied to the Berry phase of massless Dirac electrons and demonstrating control of bond textures by point defects. Another advance reports spectroscopic evidence of Floquet sidebands in photoemission from graphene, establishing that coherent light-matter coupling can dress Dirac bands despite femtosecond-scale decoherence and potentially stabilise light-induced topological states. In multilayer systems, investigations of static screening using the random phase approximation have revealed multimode Friedel oscillations in monolayer and bilayer graphene. Layer-specific beating patterns and distinct oscillatory charge densities have been recorded for both AA- and AB-stacked bilayers, providing insight into how screening and interlayer interactions modulate transport scattering.

Electronic Properties and Transport Dynamics of Graphene Systems publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in electronic properties and transport dynamics of graphene systems across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Dirac fermions: Charge carriers in graphene that obey a linear energy–momentum relation, analogous to relativistic particles described by the Dirac equation.

Kekulé distortion: A periodic modulation of bond strengths in graphene’s hexagonal lattice that couples Dirac valleys and can open band gaps or host topological defects.

Floquet engineering: The use of time-periodic fields to modify electronic band structures dynamically and induce non-equilibrium phases.

Friedel oscillations: Spatial oscillations of electron density surrounding an impurity, resulting from interference of scattered electronic waves.

Ballistic transport: Charge transport regime in which carriers propagate without scattering over distances comparable to device dimensions.

Berry phase: A geometric phase acquired by quantum states upon cyclic evolution in parameter space, influencing electronic interference and topological properties.

References

1. Observation of Kekulé vortices around hydrogen adatoms in graphene. Nature Communications (2024).
2. Confinement induced strain effects in epitaxial graphene. Carbon (2025).
3. Observation of Floquet states in graphene. Nature Physics (2025).
4. Atomically Thin Current Pathways in Graphene through Kekulé‑O Engineering. Nano Letters (2024).
5. Mott Transition in the Hubbard Model on Anisotropic Honeycomb Lattice with Implications for Strained Graphene: Gutzwiller Variational Study. International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2023).
6. Multimode Friedel oscillations in monolayer and bilayer graphene. Scientific Reports (2024).