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Updated: Jun 27, 2025

Fabrication of Gate-tunable Graphene Devices for Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Studies with Coulomb Impurities
Published on: July 24, 2015
Electron wave and quantum optics in graphene
Himadri Chakraborti1, Cosimo Gorini1, Angelika Knothe2
1Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, SPEC, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
Abstract:
In the last decade, graphene has become an exciting platform for electron optical experiments, in some aspects superior to conventional two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs). A major advantage, besides the ultra-large mobilities, is the fine control over the electrostatics, which gives the possibility of realising gap-less and compact p-n interfaces with high precision. The latter host non-trivial states,e.g., snake states in moderate magnetic fields, and serve as building blocks of complex electron interferometers. Thanks to the Dirac spectrum and its non-trivial Berry phase, the internal (valley and sublattice) degrees of freedom, and the possibility to tailor the band structure using proximity effects, such interferometers open up a completely new playground based on novel device architectures. In this review, we introduce the theoretical background of graphene electron optics, fabrication methods used to realise electron-optical devices, and techniques for corresponding numerical simulations. Based on this, we give a comprehensive review of ballistic transport experiments and simple building blocks of electron optical devices both in single and bilayer graphene, highlighting the novel physics that is brought in compared to conventional 2DEGs. After describing the different magnetic field regimes in graphene p-n junctions and nanostructures, we conclude by discussing the state of the art in graphene-based Mach-Zender and Fabry-Perot interferometers.
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