van der Zant Lab

Understanding quantum phenomena in nanostructures

Graphene nanoribbons

Part of the focus of the van der Zant lab is in contacting and measuring electronic transport through graphene nanostructures, such as atomically precise graphene nanoribbons. These carbon-based conductors offer promising prospects for future electronics and spintronics applications.

Superconducting electrodes for contacting graphene nanoribbons(Damian):

An exciting part of atomically precise graphene nanoribbons is the ability to manipulate their structure and chemical composition by changing the growth precursors. This allows for making metallic and magnetic graphene nanoribbons. By coupling such a graphene nanoribbon to a superconductor, electronic transport  through quasiparticles(YSR states) below the superconducting gap of the superconductor may arise due to local pair-breaking effects, potentially allowing for the detection and determination of the magnetic state in the graphene nanoribbons.

MoRe superconducting point contact nanogap electrodes(<10-18nm)

MoRe wide area nanogap electrodes (~30nm over 1um)