A*STAR - Page 2

Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and A*STAR developed a new method to create Quantum Dots from Graphene. The idea is to start with a C60 fullerene (a soccer ball like spherical carbon structure that costs of 60 carbon atoms) and 'open' them up (or decompose them) at high temperature using ruthenium as a catalyst.

The researcher performed the decomposition using a sparser coverage of fullerenes on the catalytic ruthenium surface than previously tried - which gave the fullerenes room to prevent carbon atoms from diffusing from one fullerene to the next.

Researchers from the A*STAR Institute of Materials Research and Engineering and the National University of Singapore have developed an improved design for a Graphene based field-effect transistor (FET). The new device includes an additional silicon dioxide (SiO2) dielectric gate below the graphene layer. This allows for simplified bit writing by providing an additional background source of charge carriers.

The new device can lead the way towards ;grapheneferroelectric FETs to be used for nonvolatile memory. The researchers say that the new design achieved impressive practical results - symmetrical bit writing with a resistance ratio between the two resistance states of over 500% and reproducible nonvolatile switching over 100,000 cycles.