The 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics Announced

The 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov from the University of Manchester for their "groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene."

Graphene was first created from graphite—a carbon-based material most commonly found in pencils—by Geim and his colleagues when they pulled a piece of adhesive tape across the bulk material. Eventually, they were pulling away a single-atom thick layer of carbon—graphene.

Graphene's honeycomb crystal lattice gives the material especially unique electrical properties. Electrons move through graphene nearly unimpeded when compared to other materials. This allows for the creation of ultrafast electronic elements, for example. This property is thought to be a result of graphene's near-perfect atomic structure.

The electrons in graphene are what's known as quasiparticles—the same word is used to describe how positively charged "holes" travel through semiconductors. The graphene quasiparticles do not behave like any other quasiparticles observed before, though. They behave in a manner similar to particles moving very near the speed of light. This unique and surprising property allows physicists to study relativistic and quantum mechanical phenomena that would be almost impossible to study otherwise.

In addition to ultrafast electronics, other potential applications include graphene transistors, ultracapacitors, integrated circuits, transparent conducting electrodes, and many more yet to be explored.

The AIP Journals, most notably Applied Physics Letters and Journal of Applied Physics, extensively cover these topics and many more related to graphene phenomena.

Access AIP Journal Articles by Andre K. Geim and Konstantin S. Novoselov—Co-Recipients of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics

Discover every article that AIP has published from these Nobel Laureates.

Direct determination of the crystallographic orientation of graphene edges by atomic resolution imaging
S. Neubeck, Y. M. You, Z. H. Ni, P. Blake, Z. X. Shen, A. K. Geim, and K. S. Novoselov
Appl. Phys. Lett. 97, 053110 (2010)

Quantum resistance metrology in graphene
A. J. M. Giesbers, G. Rietveld, E. Houtzager, U. Zeitler, R. Yang, K. S. Novoselov, A. K. Geim, and J. C. Maan
Appl. Phys. Lett. 93, 222109 (2008)

Raman fingerprint of charged impurities in graphene
C. Casiraghi, S. Pisana, K. S. Novoselov, A. K. Geim, and A. C. Ferrari
Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 233108 (2007)

Making graphene visible
P. Blake, E. W. Hill, A. H. Castro Neto, K. S. Novoselov, D. Jiang, R. Yang, T. J. Booth, and A. K. Geim
Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 063124 (2007)

Graphene: Exploring Carbon Flatland
Andrey K. Geim and Allan H. MacDonald
Phys. Today 60, 35 (2007)

Submicron sensors of local electric field with single-electron resolution at room temperature
I. I. Barbolina, K. S. Novoselov, S. V. Morozov, S. V. Dubonos, M. Missous, A. O. Volkov, D. A. Christian, I. V. Grigorieva, and A. K. Geim
Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 013901 (2006)

Spin-polarized electron tunneling across magnetic dielectric
I. V. Shvets, A. N. Grigorenko, K. S. Novoselov, and D. J. Mapps
Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 212501 (2005)

Submicron probes for Hall magnetometry over the extended temperature range from helium to room temperature
K. S. Novoselov, S. V. Morozov, S. V. Dubonos, M. Missous, A. O. Volkov, D. A. Christian, and A. K. Geim
J. Appl. Phys. 93, 10053 (2003)

Diamagnetic levitation: Flying frogs and floating magnets (invited)
M. D. Simon and A. K. Geim
J. Appl. Phys. 87, 6200 (2000)

Tales of Bitter Magnetism: Frog Eggs, Blood Cells, Pigeon Feet, Metal Shreds and a Sore Head
James M. Valles, Jr, James M. Denegre, Kimberly L. Mowry, David R. Kelland, and Andrey Geim
Phys. Today 51, 11 (1998)

Everyone's Magnetism
Andrey Geim
Phys. Today 51, 36 (1998)

Ballistic Hall micromagnetometry
A. K. Geim, S. V. Dubonos, J. G. S. Lok, I. V. Grigorieva, J. C. Maan, L. Theil Hansen, and P. E. Lindelof
Appl. Phys. Lett. 71, 2379 (1997)

Zero-dimensional states in macroscopic resonant tunneling devices
Sakai, P. C. Main, P. H. Beton, N. La Scala, Jr., A. K. Geim, L. Eaves, and M. Henini
Appl. Phys. Lett. 64, 2563 (1994)

Optical suppression of ionized impurity scattering in vertical hot-electron transport
A. K. Geim, S. J. Bending, P. Gueret, and H. P. Meier
Appl. Phys. Lett. 61, 3157 (1992)