Graphene: Materials in the Flatland (Nobel lecture)

Much like the world described in Abbott's "Flatland", graphene is a two-dimensional object. And, as "Flatland" is "A Romance of Many Dimensions", graphene is much more than just a flat crystal. It possesses a number of unusual properties which are often unique or superior to those in other materials. In this brief lecture I would like to explain the reason for my (and many other people's) fascination with this material, and invite the reader to share some of the excitement I've experienced while researching it. There can be only one: In their Nobel Reviews, the laureates tell the story about the ever-changing, exciting scientific pathways that eventually-for example, with the aid of simple adhesive tape-led them to the discovery of graphene. Graphene is a carbon monolayer with almost magical abilities, including exceptional rigidity, stability, and electronic properties, with massless Dirac fermions as charge carriers. Copyright © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.