Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 28, 2026

Fabrication of Gate-tunable Graphene Devices for Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Studies with Coulomb Impurities
Published on: July 24, 2015
Coherent electronic transport through graphene constrictions: subwavelength regime and optical analogy
Pierre Darancet1, Valerio Olevano, Didier Mayou
1Institut Néel, CNRS and UJF, Grenoble, France and European Theoretical Spectroscopy Facility (ETSF), Grenoble, France.
Abstract:
Nanoelectronic devices smaller than the electron wavelength can be achieved in graphene with current lithography techniques. Here we show that the electronic quantum transport of graphene subwavelength nanodevices presents deep analogies with subwavelength optics. We introduce the concept of electronic diffraction barrier to represent the effect of constrictions and the rich transport phenomena of a variety of nanodevices. Results are presented for Bethe and Kirchhoff diffraction in graphene slits and Fabry-Perot interference oscillations in nanoribbons. The same concept applies to graphene quantum dots and gives new insight into recent experiments in these systems.
Related Concept Videos
The de Broglie Wavelength
Band Theory
The energy difference between these bands is known as the band gap.
Conductor, Semiconductor,...
Standing Waves in a Cavity
Semiconductors
Metals such as copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), or lead (Pb) have low resistivity and feature conduction bands that are either not fully occupied or overlap with the valence band, making a bandgap non-existent. This allows electrons in the highest energy levels of the valence band to easily transition to the conduction band upon gaining...
Carrier Transport
Drift Current:
The drift of charge carriers is started by an external electric field (E). Charged particles, such as electrons and holes, experience an acceleration between collisions with lattice atoms. For electrons, this results in a drift velocity (vd) given by:
Debye–Huckel–Onsager Conductance Equation

