Planar tunnel junction fabrication and bandgap engineering on bilayer graphene

High electron mobility at room temperature and the ease of two-dimensional patterning are just two of the features of graphene materials that have made them highly interesting for device prospects. The past three years have produced extensive research on both graphene flakes mechanically exfoliated from bulk graphite and on epitaxial graphene the most promising method of producing wafer-size films by the sublimation of Si from SiC surfaces. A single layer of graphene (1LG) is a semimetal, and the inability to "pinch off electron transport presents a problem for transistor prospects. However, bilayer graphene (2LG) features a bandgap that is tunable with control of the charge concentration in each layer, making it an ideal candidate for graphene-based electronics.