Department of Physics & Astronomy
Research Highlights
Strong Bonds Between Rare-Earth Metals and Graphene
(From an Ames Laboratory Press Release)
Transistors and information storage devices are getting smaller and smaller. But, to go as small as the nanoscale, scientists must understand how just a few atoms of metals behave when deposited on a surface.
Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory are studying the interaction of materials that are promising for use in nanoscale electronics: graphene and different types of metals. The team has discovered the rare-earth metals dysprosium and gadolinium react strongly with graphene, while lead does not.
Michael C. Tringides, an Ames Laboratory senior physicist, and colleagues Myron Hupalo, an Ames Laboratory scientist, and Steven Binz, a graduate student in physics, deposited a few atoms of lead or rare-earth metals on the surface of graphene, a one-atom thick layer of carbon. In a process called self assembly, the atoms move on their own and form islands or smooth films on graphene. Tringides and the team then used scanning tunneling microscopy to study the islands’ geometry.
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more...Welcome to the Department of Physics & Astronomy
Physics and astronomy explores the behavior and structure of matter and energy at all levels to help describe our world and the universe. Physics has been helped us contemplate the origins of the universe and develop new products and technologies that meet human needs. The fundamental laws of physics find application in almost every branch of science, engineering and technology.
The Department has active research programs in Astronomy/Astrophysics, Condensed Matter Physics, High-energy Physics, and Nuclear Physics. Our high-energy physics, particle astrophysics and nuclear physics groups are involved in experiments which recreate the conditions of the early universe and help explain how it has evolved. In providing instruction in classical and modern physics, we cover such areas as mechanics, electricity and magnetism, thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, introductory modern physics, and quantum mechanics.
