Barrier to faster graphene devices identified and suppressed

A team of Vanderbilt physicists reports that they have nailed down the source of the interference inhibiting the rapid flow of electrons through graphene-based devices and found a way to suppress it. This discovery allowed them to achieve record-levels of room-temperature electron mobility -- the measure of the speed that electrons travel through a material -- three times greater than those reported in previous graphene-based devices. They found that graphene’s electron mobility is dramatically increased when graphene is submerged in electrically neutral liquids that can absorb large amounts of electrical energy (have large dielectric constants). They achieved the record-level mobility of 60,000 using anisole, a colorless liquid with a pleasant, aromatic odor used chiefly in perfumery. Now that the source of the degradation in electrical performance of graphene has been clearly identified, it should be possible to come up with reliable device designs.