Simpler Thermodynamic Approach Could Help Improve the Performance of Graphene-Based Nanoelectronic Devices The researchers found that the energy of ultrafast electrical currents passing through graphene is very efficiently converted into electron heat, making graphene electrons behave just like a hot gas. �The heat is distributed evenly over all electrons. And the rise in electronic temperature, caused by the passing currents, in turn has a strong effect on the electrical conduction of graphene� explains Professor Mischa Bonn, Director at the MPI-P. The study, entitled �Thermodynamic picture of ultrafast charge transport in graphene�, has recently been published in Nature Communications.Graphene � a single sheet of carbon atoms � is known to be a very good electrical conductor. As a result, graphene finds a multitude of applications in modern nanoelectronics. They range from highly efficient detectors for optical and wireless communications to transistors operating at very high speeds. A constantly increasing demand for telecommunication bandwidth requires an ever faster operation of electronic devices, pushing their response times to be as short as a picosecond. �The results of this study will help improve the performance of graphene-based nanoelectronic devices such as ultra-high speed transistors and photodetectors� says Professor Dmitry Turchinovich, who led the research at the MPI-P. In particular they show the way for breaking the terahertz operation speed barrier � i.e. one thousand billions of oscillations per second � for graphene transistors.Source: http://www.mpip-mainz.mpg.de/