Graphene, a single atomic layer of carbon, is a unique two-dimensional quantum material where electrons behave as massless particles (Dirac fermions) with an effective speed of light equal to c/300. This provides an interesting analogy to the high energy relativistic quantum mechanics in a condensed matter system. In this talk I will discuss our experiments probing the novel quantum phenomena arising from the “relativistic” nature of the quasiparticles in graphene. I will also show that, with one more layer added, the graphene bilayer is another intriguing system whose electronic structure can be controlled by electrical gating.
Prof. Yuanbo Zhang received his BS from Peking University in 2000 and his PhD in Physics from Columbia University in 2006. He was a Miller Research Fellow at the University of California at Berkeley from Sept. 2006 to Jun. 2009, a postdoc research associate at IBM Almaden Research Center from Mar. 2010 to Sept. 2010, and a professor of Fudan University from Sept. 2010. His main research interests are: Electronic transport in low-dimensional systems including graphene; Scanning probe techniques and their application in studying low-dimensional nanostructures. Major honors include: Charles Townes Fellowship, Columbia University (2005); Miller Fellow, University of California, Berkeley (2006); IUPAP Young Scientist Prize, International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (2010).