Structural properties of pristine and defected graphene nanoribbons have been investigated by stretching them under 5 percent and 10 percent uniaxial strain until fragmentation. The stretching process has been carried out by performing molecular dynamics simulations (MDS) at 1 K and 300 K to determine the temperature effect on the structure of the graphene nanoribbons. Results of the simulations indicated that temperature, edge shape of graphene nanoribbons and stretching speed have a considerable effect on structural properties, however they have a slight effect on the strain value. The maximum strain at which fracture occurs is found to be 46.41 percent whereas minimum strain value is calculated as 21.00 percent. On the other hand, the defect formation energy is strongly affected from temperature and edge shape of graphene nanoribbons. Stone-Wales formation energy is calculated as -1.60 eV at 1 K whereas -30.13 eV at 300 K for armchair graphene nanoribbon.

Modeling approaches are developed to optimize emerging on-chip and off-chip electrical interconnect technologies and benchmark them against conventional technologies. While transistor scaling results in an improvement in power and performance, interconnect scaling results in a degradation in performance and electromigration reliability. Although graphene potentially has superior transport properties compared to copper, it is shown that several technology improvements like smooth edges, edge doping, good contacts, and good substrates are essential for graphene to outperform copper in high performance on-chip interconnect applications. However, for low power applications, the low capacitance of graphene results in 31\% energy savings compared to copper interconnects, for a fixed performance. Further, for characterization of the circuit parameters of multi-layer graphene, multi-conductor transmission line models that account for an alignment margin and finite width of the contact are developed. Although it is essential to push for an improvement in chip performance by improving on-chip interconnects, devices, and architectures, the system level performance can get severely limited by the bandwidth of off-chip interconnects. As a result, three dimensional integration and airgap interconnects are studied as potential replacements for conventional off-chip interconnects. The key parameters that limit the performance of a 3D IC are identified as the Through Silicon Via (TSV) capacitance, driver resistance, and on-chip wire resistance on the driver side. Further, the impact of on-chip wires on the performance of 3D ICs is shown to be more pronounced at advanced technology nodes and when the TSV diameter is scaled down. Airgap interconnects are shown to improve aggregate bandwidth by 3x to 5x for backplane and Printed Circuit Board (PCB) links, and by 2x for silicon interposer links, at comparable energy consumption.

This dissertation explores the potential applications of nanotechnology in the oilfield including poly(vinyl alcohol) stabilized carbon black nanoparticles for oil exploration and temperature-responsive carbon black nanoparticles for enhanced oil recovery. Also, it describes the rational design of graphene nanoribbons via intercalating reactive metals into multi-walled carbon nanotubes followed by addition of vinyl monomers or haloalkanes. Efficient production and modification of these aforementioned nanomaterials will make them more attractive for applications in the oilfield and electronics materials. A method is reported for detecting the hydrocarbon in the porous media with stabilized nanoparticles that are capable of efficiently transporting hydrophobic molecules through oil-containing rocks and selectively releasing them when a hydrocarbon is encountered. Nano-sized carbon black was oxidized and then functionalized with poly(vinyl alcohol) via a coupling reaction between the polymer's hydroxyl groups and the carboxylic groups on oxidized carbon black. Breakthrough curves show that poly(vinyl alcohol)-coated oxidized carbon black was stable in synthetic sea brine at room temperature and could carry the 14C-labeled radioactive tracer 2,2ˊ,5,5ˊ-tetrachlorobiphenyl through rocks and then released the tracer upon exposure to hydrocarbon. Due to the temperature-sensitivity of hydrogen bonds, higher molecular weight poly(vinyl alcohol) was used to improve the stability of carbon black nanoparticles in synthetic sea brine at higher temperatures. After sulfation, high molecular weight poly(vinyl alcohol) could stabilized carbon black nanoparticles in American Petroleum Institute standard brine at high temperatures. Those nanoparticles could efficiently transport mass-tagged probe molecules through a variety of oil-field rock types and selectively released the probe molecules into the hydrocarbon-containing rocks. Those proof-of-concept chemical nanoreporters can potentially be used under conditions commonly observed in the reservoir, and aid in the recovery of oil that remains in place. Amphiphilic carbon nanoparticles have been prepared that are capable of reversibly transferring across the water/oil interface in a temperature-controlled manner. Nano-sized carbon black was oxidized and then functionalized with amphiphilic diblock polyethylene-b-poly(ethylene glycol) copolymers that were water-soluble at low-to-moderate temperatures but oil-soluble at higher temperatures. The correlation between the phase transfer temperature and the melting temperature of the hydrophobic block of the copolymers and the weight percent of hydrophilic block were investigated. The amphiphilic nanoparticles were used to stabilize oil droplets for demonstrating potential applications in reducing the water/oil interfacial tension, a key parameter in optimizing crude oil extraction from downhole reservoirs. Graphene nanoribbons free of oxidized surfaces can be prepared in large batches and 100% yield by splitting multi-walled carbon nanotubes with potassium vapor. If desired, exfoliation is attainable in a subsequent step using chlorosulfonic acid. The low-defect density of these GNRs is indicated by their electrical conductivity, comparable to that of graphene derived from mechanically exfoliated graphite. Additionally, cost-effective and potentially industrially scalable, in situ functionalization procedures for preparation of soluble graphene nanoribbons from commercially carbon nanotubes are presented. To make alkane-functionalized graphene nanoribbons, multi-walled carbon nanotubes were intercalated by sodium/potassium alloy under liquid-phase conditions, followed by addition of haloalkanes, while polymer-functionalized graphene nanoribbons were prepared via polymerizing vinyl monomers using potassium-intercalated graphene nanoribbons. The correlation between the splitting of MWCNTs, the intrinsic properties of the intercalants and the degree of graphitization of the starting MWCNTs has also been demonstrated. Those functionalized graphene nanoribbons could have applications in conductive composites, transparent electrodes, transparent heat circuits, and supercapcitors.

Graphene, a 2D honeycomb lattice of sp² hybridized carbons, has attracted the attention of the scientific community not only for its interesting theoretical properties but also for its myriad of possible applications. The discovery of graphene led to the Nobel Prize in physics for 2010 to be awarded to Andrei Geim and Konstantin Novoselov. Since its discovery, many methods have been developed for the synthesis of this material. Two of those methods stand out for the growth of high quality and large area graphene sheets, namely, epitaxial growth from silicon carbide (SiC) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD). As it stands today, both methods make use of high concentrations of hydrogen (10-20%) in N₂ or Ar, high temperatures, and a vacuum system. Epitaxial growth from SiC in addition requires very expensive single crystal SiC wafers. In the case of CVD, organic molecules are used as the carbon source to grow graphene on a metal substrate. Although graphene has been grown on many metal substrates, the experiments highlighted here make use of copper as the metal substrate of choice since it offers the advantage of availability, low price, and, most importantly, because this substrate is self-limiting in other words, it mostly grows single layer graphene. Because the CVD method provides with a choice as for the carbon source to use, the following question arises: can a molecule, either commercially available or synthesized, be used as a carbon source that would allow for the synthesis of graphene under low temperatures, low concentrations of hydrogen and at atmospheric pressure? This dissertation focuses on the synthesis of graphene at lower temperatures by using carbon sources with characteristics that might make this possible. It also focuses on the use of forming gas (3% H₂ and 97% N₂ or Ar) in order to make the overall process a lot safer and cost effective. This dissertation contains two chapters on the synthesis of organic molecules of interest, and observations about their reactivity are included. CVD experiments were performed at atmospheric pressure, and under vacuum. In both instances forming gas was used as the annealing and carrier gas. Results from CVD at atmospheric pressure (CVDAP), using organic solvents as carbon sources, show that at 1000℃, low quality graphene was obtained. On the other hand, CVD experiments using a vacuum in the range of 25 mTorr to 1 Torr successfully produced good quality graphene. For graphene growth under vacuum conditions, commercially available and synthesized compounds were used. Attempts at growing graphene at 600℃ from the same carbon sources only formed amorphous carbon. These results point to the fact that good quality graphene can basically be grown from any carbonaceous material as long as the growth temperature is 1000℃ and the system is under vacuum. In addition to the synthesis of graphene at low temperatures, there is a great amount of interest on the synthesis of graphene nanoribbons (GNR’s) and, as with graphene, several approaches to their synthesis have been developed. One such method is the synthesis of GNRs encapsulated in carbon nanotubes. Experiments were conducted in which aluminosilicate nanotubes were used. These nanotubes provided for an easier interpretation of the Raman spectrum since the signals from the nanotubes do not interfere with those of the GNR’s as in the case when carbon nanotubes are used. The use of aluminosilicate nanotubes also allowed for the successful synthesis of GNR’s at temperatures as low as 200℃ when perylene was used as the carbon source.

ARAÚJO, F. R. V. Transporte Eletrônico em Phased Arrays de Nanofitas de Grafeno. 2017. 70 f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Física) – Centro de Ciências, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, 2017. / Submitted by Pós-Graduação em Física (posgrad@fisica.ufc.br) on 2017-08-23T17:06:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_dis_frvaraujo.pdf: 3006955 bytes, checksum: 96cafe22b25ecd5c8d4c555c7a4a5c83 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Giordana Silva (giordana.nascimento@gmail.com) on 2017-08-23T17:44:16Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_dis_frvaraujo.pdf: 3006955 bytes, checksum: 96cafe22b25ecd5c8d4c555c7a4a5c83 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-23T17:44:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_dis_frvaraujo.pdf: 3006955 bytes, checksum: 96cafe22b25ecd5c8d4c555c7a4a5c83 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017 / Graphene, a layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb crystal lattice, has remarkable physical properties. After its experimental obtaining in 2004 by A. K. Geim and K. S. Novoselov, several researches were carried out aiming to understand such physical properties and several possibilities of applications were proposed. At the low energy limit, there is a linearity relationship between energy and momentum for the electric charge carriers in this material and, therefore, they behave as relativistic particles of zero mass, described by the Dirac equation. One of the implications is that the electron-associated eigenfunctions that cross a potential barrier may not undergo damping under certain circumstances, a phenomenon known as Klein's paradox. Even without damping, these eigenfunctions acquire a phase factors that may depend only on the height and width values of the potential barrier. In this study, we investigate the properties transport in two electronic devices that use this phenomenon and that may be associated to phased arrays (electronic systems that have several emitters of waves, mechanically or electromagnetic, properly organized). We studied the electronic transport mechanisms in these physical systems and performed numerical simulations of electrical conductance as a function of energy and electrical conductance as a function of the electric potential and it was observed that the direction of propagation of the electrons can be controlled by varying the values of height and width of potential barriers. / O grafeno, uma camada de átomos de carbono arranjados em uma rede cristalina honeycomb (favo de mel), possui propriedades físicas notáveis. Após sua obtenção experimental em 2004 por A. K. Geim e K. S. Novoselov, várias pesquisas foram realizadas objetivando compreender tais propriedades físicas e diversas possibilidades de aplicações foram propostas. No limite de baixas energias, existe uma relação de linearidade entre a energia e o momento para os portadores de carga elétrica nesse material e, com isso, os mesmos comportam-se como partículas relativísticas de massa nula, descritas pela equação de Dirac. Uma das implicações disso é que as autofunções associadas aos elétrons que atravessam uma barreira de potencial podem não sofrer amortecimento em dadas circunstâncias, fenômeno esse conhecido como paradoxo de Klein. Mesmo sem sofrer amortecimento, essas autofunções adquirem fatores de fase que podem depender apenas dos valores de altura e largura da barreira de potencial. Nesse trabalho investigamos as propriedades de transporte em dois dispositivos eletrônicos que utilizam-se desse fenômeno e que podem ser associados a phased arrays (sistemas eletrônicos que possuem vários emissores de ondas, mecânicas ou eletromagnéticas, devidamente organizados). Estudamos os mecanismos de transporte eletrônico nesses sistemas físicos e realizamos simulações numéricas da condutância elétrica em função da energia e da condutância elétrica em função do potencial elétrico e observamos que a direção de propagação dos elétrons pode ser controlada através da variação dos valores de altura e largura das barreiras de potencial.

SENA, Silvia Helena Roberto de. Propriedades eletrônicas de tricamada de grafeno e nanofitas de carbono tensionadas. 2012. 112 f. Tese (Doutorado em Física) - Programa de Pós-Graduação em Física, Departamento de Física, Centro de Ciências, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, 2012. / Submitted by Edvander Pires (edvanderpires@gmail.com) on 2015-10-15T18:11:54Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2012_tese_shrsena.pdf: 15892821 bytes, checksum: ed3de1e000d2b9d87efc866ee0064b8f (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Edvander Pires(edvanderpires@gmail.com) on 2015-10-21T20:35:21Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2012_tese_shrsena.pdf: 15892821 bytes, checksum: ed3de1e000d2b9d87efc866ee0064b8f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-10-21T20:35:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2012_tese_shrsena.pdf: 15892821 bytes, checksum: ed3de1e000d2b9d87efc866ee0064b8f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Graphene is a truly two-dimensional crystal with a gapless linear electronic spectrum at low energies (E<1 eV) which, along with the chiral nature of its charge carriers, is responsible for a variety of unusual properties. As a result of its uniqueness, a great effort has been made in order to understand all its fundamental properties and try to generate a new technology of them. In this thesis we theoretically study two types of graphene-related systems: graphene nanoribbons and trilayer graphene (TLG). Concerning the former, a tight-binding model is used to study the energy band of graphene and graphene ribbon under simple shear strain. The ribbon consists of lines of carbon atoms in an armchair or zigzag orientation where a simple shear strain is applied in the $x$-direction keeping the atomic distances in the $y$-direction unchanged. Such modification in the lattice gives an energy band that differs in several aspects from the one without any shear and with pure shear. The changes in the spectrum depend on the line displacement of the ribbon, and also on the modified hopping parameter. It is also shown that this simple shear strain tunes the electronic properties of both graphene and graphene ribbon, opening and closing energy gaps for different displacements of the system. The modified density of states is also shown. On the latter subject, the continuum model is used in order to investigate the electronic spectrum of three coupled graphene layers (graphene trilayers) in the presence of an external magnetic field. We obtain analytical expressions for the Landau level (LL) spectrum for both the ABA and ABC types of stacking, which exhibit very different dependence on the magnetic field. While the LL spectrum of ABA TLG is found to be a superposition of a monolayer-like and bilayer-like spectra, the ABC TLG present a nearly B^{3/2} field dependence. We show that layer asymmetry and an external gate voltage can strongly influence the properties of the system. In addition, the cyclotron resonance energies, the corresponding oscillator strengths, and the cyclotron absorption spectrum for trilayer graphene are calculated for both ABA and ABC stacking. A gate potential across the stacked layers leads to (1) a reduction of the transition energies, (2) a lifting of the degeneracy of the zero Landau level, and (3) the removal of the electron-hole symmetry. / Grafeno é um cristal bidimensional cujo espectro eletrônico a baixas energias (E <1 eV) apresenta dispersão linear e ausência de gap que, juntamente com a natureza quiral dos portadores de carga, são responsáveis por uma variedade de propriedades incomuns. Como resultado da sua natureza singular, um grande esforço tem sido feito para entender todas as suas propriedades fundamentais e tentar gerar uma nova tecnologia baseada nesse material. Nesta tese, nós realizamos um estudo teórico de dois tipos de sistemas: nanofitas de grafeno e tricamadas grafeno (TCG). No que diz respeito ao primeiro sistema, um modelo de ligação forte (tight-binding) é utilizado para estudar as bandas de energia do grafeno e fitas de grafeno sujeitas a uma tensão de cisalhamento. A fita é constituída por linhas de átomos de carbono cujas bordas estão orientadas nas direções conhecidas como “armchair” ou “zigzag”. Uma tensão de cisalhamento simples é aplicada na direção x de forma que as distâncias interatômicas na direção y são mantidas inalteradas. Esta modificação na rede cristalina origina bandas de energia que diferem em vários aspectos do sistema original sem qualquer deformação. As mudanças no espectro dependem do deslocamento entre linhas adjacentes da fita, bem como do parâmetro de “hopping” modificado. Mostra-se também que este cisalhamento simples modifica as propriedades eletrônicas de ambos os sistemas, fitas de grafeno e grafeno, abrindo e fechando gaps de energia para diferentes deslocamentos do sistema. A densidade de estados modificada também é mostrada. Por fim, o modelo contínuo é utilizado a fim de investigar o espectro electrônico de três camadas de grafeno acopladas (tricamada de grafeno), na presença de um campo magnético externo. Nesse contexto, obtemos expressões analíticas para os nveis de Landau para ambos os tipos de empilhamento: Bernal (ABA) e romboédrico (ABC), verificando-se uma forte dependência dos níveis de energia com o tipo de empilhamento. Embora o espectro de Landau para tricamadas ABA seja uma sobreposição dos espectros de uma monocamada e de uma bicamada, tricamadas com empilhamento ABC apresentam uma dispersão do tipo B3/2 com o campo magnético. Foi mostrado que uma assimetria entre as camadas, que pode ser introduzida por um potencial externo, pode influenciar fortemente as propriedades do sistema. Além disso, as energias de ressonância cíclotron, assim como forças de oscilador correspondentes, e o espectro de absorção para tricamadas de grafeno são calculadas para ambos os tipos de empilhamento. Verificou-se que um potencial de porta aplicado através das camadas leva a (1) uma redução das energias de transição, (2) um levantamento da degenerescência do nível de Landau n=0, e (3) a quebra de simetria entre elétrons e buracos.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T12:14:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 10643873 bytes, checksum: 81e90e644eae7a4b72cfe4d225c4e791 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-09-20 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / In this work, we have performed first-principles calculations studie the energetic and stability and electronic structure of BxCyNz nanotubes and nanoribbons through the use of calculations based on Density Functional Theory implemented in the SIESTA code. Firstly we have considered zigzag and armchair carbon nanotubes. Then, we have substituted carbon atoms by boron and nitrogen atoms; therefore it is generated island of BN in carbon nanotube. It is found that BN island induces modifications on the electronic structure of such nanotubes, which can induced an opening or closing in the energy gap, depending on chirality, number of rings and diameter of these nanotubes. In addition, it is shown that the spin polarization of BC2N nanoribbons depends on both widths and configurations of such nanostructures. It is also seen that zigzag and armchair BC2N nanoribbons present a gap energy that strongly depends on width of nanoribbons. In addition, a magnetic behavior is observed for the zigzag structures for all widths considered as the armchair show no magnetization. / Neste trabalho realizamos um estudo ab-initio da estabilidade energética e da estrutura eletrônica de nanotubos e nanofitas BxCyNz através do uso de cálculos baseados na Teoria do Funcional da Densidade implementado no código SIESTA. Primeiramente consideramos o nanotubo de carbono zigzag e armchair puro, e fomos adicionando um anel de BN até a quantidade de dez anéis. Em seguida, partimos do nanotubo de carbono com um anel de BN, e fizemos um estudo em função do diâmetro. Encontramos que a presença do anel de BN pode interferir nas propriedades eletrônicas dos nanotubos, podendo provocar abertura ou o fechamento do gap, de acordo com a quiralidade, o número de anéis e o diâmetro do nanotubo. Além da estabilidade e da estrutura eletrônica, também estudamos as propriedades magnéticas de fitas BC2N saturadas com hidrogênio, com diferentes larguras e configurações. Em particular, para BC2N compostas por ilhas de nitreto de boro rodeadas por átomos de carbono com bordas zigzag e armchair. Foi visto que fitas BC2N zigzag e armchair podem ter um pequeno gap semicondutor ou ser metálica dependendo da largura da fita. Além disso, um comportamento magnético é observado para as estruturas zigzag, para todas as larguras consideradas, enquanto as armchair não mostram qualquer magnetização.

Submitted by Fabio Sobreira Campos da Costa (fabio.sobreira@ufpe.br) on 2016-08-18T15:18:04Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) TESE-BAGR.pdf: 9049017 bytes, checksum: af3edd6dce7e702e64d600bace79a1e9 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-18T15:18:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) TESE-BAGR.pdf: 9049017 bytes, checksum: af3edd6dce7e702e64d600bace79a1e9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-04-08 / CNPq / Atualmente o grafeno tem sido considerado uma nanoestrutura ideal para diversas aplicações, porém o processo de síntese em longa escala ainda é um desafio, sendo o grafeno oxidado (GO) uma possível solução para obter o grafeno em grande quantidade. Neste trabalho sintetizamos GO utilizando método de Hummers ao qual introduzimos modificações de modo a diminuir os gases tóxicos produzidos durante a síntese. De modo a não alterar as propriedades do grafeno devido à introdução de grupos funcionais existentes no GO utilizamos dois processos de redução, um químico e outro térmico. O grafeno obtido por ambos processos foi caracterizado do ponto de vista estrutural, morfológico e óptico. Os resultados revelaram que o grafeno reduzido (RGO) apresentava na forma de bicamada, com uma alta área superficial (500 m2 g-1). Foi observado também no espectro UV-Vis, um deslocamento de comprimento de onda da ordem de 40 nm para energias maiores e uma diminuição de 50% do número de defeitos em relação ao GO, devido a eliminação de grupos funcionais, pelo processo de redução. Utilizamos o mesmo processo de síntese do RGO para produzir nanofitas de carbono. As nanofitas apresentam propriedades similares ao grafeno, embora estas não dependam somente do número de folhas, como no caso do grafeno. As propriedades elétricas das nanofitas dependem fortemente de sua largura. Assim, para o controle da largura das nanofitas, utilizamos o método de Tour para a abertura de nanotubos de carbono de múltiplas camadas (MWCNTs). As nanofitas sintetizadas possuem comprimentos em torno de 5 μm e larguras em torno de 150 nm, e com número de folhas menor ou igual a 5. Além da síntese do grafeno e das nanofitas utilizamos nanopartículas magnéticas para decorar estas nanoestruturas, visando obter materiais com propriedades catalíticas, magnéticas e biocompatíveis. Utilizamos essas nanoestruturas para estudar suas possíveis aplicações no desenvolvimento de capacitores, na remoção de corantes e como sensor de biomoléculas. / Synthesis and characterization of graphene oxide and graphene nanoribbons Due to its excellent properties graphene has been established as a very good candidate in many potential applications. However, one of the main challenge for achivieving that is the massive producution of this material. Graphene oxide (GO) has been suggested as a possible route to face this concern taking the great advantage of its large scale production. In this work, we synthetise GO using the well-known Hummers method with some modifications in order to reduce the production of toxic gases. Futhermore, reduction of GO was performed to keep physical properties to be the most closest to graphene by eliminating funtional groups attached to the GO. Then, the obtained reduced graphene oxide (RGO) was characterized structural and morphologically. Those studies reveal that the RGO has at least 2 sheets, a high surface area (500 m2g-1) and a reduction of defects very close to a half of that in GO. Synthesis of graphene nanoribbons was also explored using the Tour procedure. Our results suggest the sucessful synthesis of nanoribbons with typical dimensions of 5 um in length, witdth of 150 nm and composed of less than 5 sheets. Decoration of graphene and graphene nanorribons with magnetic particles was achieved to study biocompatibility, catalityc and magnetic properties. Finally, some applications with the synthetized materials are developed in the field of capacitors, colorant removal and biosensors.

One of the challenges in graphene fabrication is the production of large scale, high quality sheets. To study a possible approach to achieve quasi-freestanding graphene on a substrate by the intercalation of alkali metal atoms, Cs intercalation between graphene and Ni(111) is investigated. It is known that direct contact between graphene and Ni(111) perturbs the Dirac states. Cs intercalation restores the linear dispersion characteristic of Dirac fermions, which agrees with experiments, but the Dirac cone is shifted to lower energy, i.e., the graphene sheet is n-doped. Cs decouples the graphene sheet, while the spin polarization of Ni(111) does not extend through the intercalated atoms to the graphene sheet, for which we find virtually spin-degeneracy. In order to employ graphene in electronic applications, one requires a finite band gap. We engineer a band gap in metallic bilayer graphene by substitutional B and/or N doping. Specifically, the introduction of B-N pairs into bilayer graphene can be used to create a band gap that is stable against thermal fluctuations at room temperature. Introduction of B-N pairs into B and/or N doped bilayer graphene likewise hardly modifies the band dispersions, however, the size of the band gap is effectively tuned. We also study the influence of terrace edges on the electronic properties of graphene, considering bare edges and H, F, Cl, NH2 terminations. Periodic structural reconstruction is observed for the Cl and NH2 edge terminations due to interaction between the terminating atoms/groups. We observe that Cl edge termination p-dopes the terraces, while NH2 edge termination results in n-doping.

Graphene nanoribbons, graphene based optical sensors, and grating based plasmonics are explored experimentally. Graphene nanoribbons exhibit highly insulating states that may allow for graphene based digital applications. We investigate the sensitivity of these states to local charged impurities in ultra high vacuum. We look into the possibility of isolating two-dimensional films of H-BN and BSCCO, and test for any interesting phenomena. We also assess graphene*s applicability for optical sensing by implementing a new style of spectral detector. Utilizing surface plasmon excitations nearby a graphene field-effect transistor we are able to produce a detector with wavelength sensitivity and selectivity in the visible range. Finally, we study another plasmonic phenomenon, and observe the resonant enhancement of diffraction into a symmetry-prohibited order in silver gratings.