Graphene in Todays World

Graphene is a rapidly rising star on the horizon of materials science and condensed matter physics. This

strictly two-dimensional material exhibits exceptionally high crystal and electronic quality and, despite its

short history, has already revealed a cornucopia of new physics and potential applications, which are

briefly discussed here. Whereas one can be certain of the realness of applications only when commercial

products appear, graphene no longer requires any further proof of its importance in terms of

fundamental physics. Owing to its unusual electronic spectrum, graphene has led to the emergence of a

new paradigm of “relativistic” condensed matter physics, where quantum relativistic phenomena, some of

which are unobservable in high energy physics, can now be mimicked and tested in table-top experiments.

More generally, graphene represents a conceptually new class of materials that are only one atom thick

and, on this basis, offers new inroads into low-dimensional physics that has never ceased to surprise and

continues to provide a fertile ground for applications.

Graphene is the name given to a flat monolayer of carbon atoms tightly packed into a two-dimensional (2D)

honeycomb lattice, and is a basic building block for graphitic materials of all other dimensionalities (Figure 1). It

can be wrapped up into 0D fullerenes, rolled into 1D nanotubes or stacked into 3D graphite. Theoretically,

graphene (or “2D graphite”) has been studied for sixty years1-3 and widely used for describing properties of

various carbon-based materials. Forty years later, it was realized that graphene also provides an excellent

condensed-matter analogue of (2+1)-dimensional quantum electrodynamics4-6, which propelled graphene into a

thriving theoretical toy model. On the other hand, although known as integral part of 3D materials, graphene was

presumed not to exist in the free state, being described as an “academic” material5 and believed to be unstable

with respect...