Condensed-Matter Physics & Materials Science Seminar

"Space quantization and the graphene transistor"

Presented by Chris Regan, UCLA

Tuesday, May 10, 2011, 11:00 am — Bldg. 480 conference room

In 1928 Dirac showed that the origin of the electron’s spin, a "classically indescribable" internal quantum number, is intimately
related to the structure of spacetime. The low-energy electronic excitations of graphene also have an internal quantum number, called
pseudospin, that results from the geometric properties of graphene's honeycomb lattice. As part of an effort to build graphene
transistors, we have calculated how graphene's low-energy electronic excitations interact with photons. This calculation reveals that
graphene's pseudospin is connected to a real, half-integer spin angular momentum. Comparison with Dirac’s theory further suggests two
possibilities, depending on whether these spins have related origins. Either the intrinsic spin of the electron is also the low-energy
signature of non-trivial quantized space, or lattice-generated spin in graphene represents a second, experimentally-accessible type of
quantum mechanical angular momentum with no classical analogue.

Hosted by: Ivan Bozovic

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