A device made of bilayer #graphene, an atomically thin hexagonal arrangement of carbon atoms, provides experimental proof of the ability to control the momentum of electrons and offers a path to electronics that could require less energy and give off less heat than standard CMOS transistors. It is one step forward in a new field of physics called valleytronics (Nature Nanotechnology, "Gate-controlled topological conducting channels in bilayer graphene"). “Current silicon-based transistor devices rely on the charge of electrons to turn the device on or off, but many labs are looking at new ways to manipulate electrons based on other variables, called degrees of freedom,” said Jun Zhu, associate professor of physics at Penn State, who directed the research. “Charge is one degree of freedom. Electron spin is another, and the ability to build transistors based on spin, called spintronics, is still in the development stage. A third electronic degree of freedom is the valley state of electrons, which is based on their energy in relation to their momentum.”
http://www.nanowerk.com/nanotechnology-news/newsid=44349.php
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