Prof. Thomas Szkopek
McGill University
Montréal, Québec, Canada

Graphene is a quantum well material with a unique electronic bandstructure, and can easily be produced by exfoliation or growth. Graphene layers are readily countable by optical reflectometry and ellipsometry, a consequence of the universal quantization of optical conductance in quantum wells. Graphene transistors on various substrates can thus be easily prepared. Motivated by work with organic semiconductors, we show that graphene transistors on parylene substrates offer good mobility, reduced doping, and reduced hysteresis compared to typical oxide substrates. The underlying mechanism for doping and instability on oxide substrates is demonstrated to be a result of electrochemical reaction between graphene, adsorbed water and substrate. Finally, we will present preliminary work on the photochemical modification of graphene oxide to graphene via UV lithography.

Thomas Szkopek received his BASc from UofT in 1999, in the Eng Sci Physics program, and an MASc at UofT under the supervision of PWE Smith in 2001. He completed a PhD under Eli Yablonovitch at UCLA in 2006 for contributions to quantum information with semiconductor quantum dots, after which he assumed the post of Assistant Professor at McGill University in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is a member of the CiFaR NanoElectronics program, a Canada Research Chair in Nanoscale Electronics, and has made contributions to the fields of far-IR photodetection, plasmonics, and graphene.