Quantum Transport Properties in Graphene Systems
Summary
Graphene’s hallmark two-dimensional lattice of carbon atoms gives rise to charge carriers that behave as massless Dirac fermions, exhibiting linear energy–momentum dispersion and exceptionally high mobilities. In high-quality samples and at low temperatures, electrons can travel ballistically over micron scales, enabling exploration of quantum conductance phenomena such as conductance quantisation in narrow constrictions, Fabry–Pérot interference across p–n junctions, and snake-state trajectories along bipolar interfaces. The chiral nature of Dirac fermions permits Klein tunnelling—almost perfect transmission through potential barriers under normal incidence—and underpins novel electron-optical devices including Veselago lenses and collimators. In strong magnetic fields, graphene reveals an unconventional quantum Hall effect with four-fold degenerate Landau levels and spin- and valley-polarised edge channels, which can be manipulated for interferometry and quantum information protocols. Integration with ferroelectric, hexagonal boron nitride and other van der Waals layers affords precise electrostatic control, minimal disorder and robust gate tunability, laying the foundation for next-generation high-speed electronics, quantum sensors and on-chip electron optics architectures.
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Quantum Transport Properties in Graphene Systems publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in quantum transport properties in graphene systems across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Dirac fermion: A quasiparticle in graphene behaving like a relativistic particle with linear dispersion.
Ballistic transport: Charge-carrier propagation without scattering over distances comparable to sample dimensions.
Klein tunnelling: Near-perfect transmission of Dirac fermions through a potential barrier at normal incidence.
Quantum Hall effect: Formation of discrete Landau levels in a magnetic field giving rise to quantised Hall conductance.
p–n junction: Boundary between regions of hole and electron conduction, crucial for tunnelling and interference effects.
Quantum point contact: A narrow constriction that allows conductance in discrete quantum modes.
References
- Nanoscale Ferroelectric Programming of van der Waals Heterostructures. Nano Letters (2024).
- Quantum Transport in Large-Scale Patterned Nitrogen-Doped Graphene. Nanomaterials (2023).
- Snake trajectories in ultraclean graphene p–n junctions. Nature Communications (2015).
- Size quantization of Dirac fermions in graphene constrictions. Nature Communications (2016).
- A Klein-tunneling transistor with ballistic graphene. 2D Materials (2014).
- Absorptive pinhole collimators for ballistic Dirac fermions in graphene. Nature Communications (2017).
- Mach-Zehnder interferometry using spin- and valley-polarized quantum Hall edge states in graphene. Science Advances (2017).
- Tunable transmission of quantum Hall edge channels with full degeneracy lifting in split-gated graphene devices. Nature Communications (2017).
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