Dr. Paul McEuen, a nanoscientist from Cornell with a range of research interests (lab website — http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/lassp_data/mceuen/homepage/research.html), will be visiting Carleton on October 5th and 6th. He will be giving the inaugural Frank Verbrugge Memorial Lecture at 7 pm on Monday, Oct 5th (week 4) in Olin 141.
The Art and Science of Nanoscale Carbon
Paul L. McEuen, Dept. of Physics and the Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science, Cornell University
For centuries, practitioners of the paper arts of origami (“ori”=fold) and kirigami (“kiri”=cut) have created beautiful and complex structures from a simple sheet of paper. Here we show that graphene, an atomically thin sheet of carbon atoms, is a perfect starting material for micro- and nanoscale paper arts. We first demonstrate that we can, with the right tools, pick up a single sheet of graphene and manipulate it like a sheet of paper. This technique allows us to characterize the bending stiffness of an atomically thin membrane for the first time. We then apply ideas from kirigami to pattern the graphene into a variety of shapes and explore their properties. These include stretchable electrodes, springs, and robust hinges. Finally, we play around with carbon nanotubes — nanometer-diameter cylinders made from curled up graphene sheets. Nanotubes are picked up and strained with micron-sized tweezers, allowing us to simultaneously study their optical, electronic, and vibrational properties. As an example, we record the “sound” of a single nanotube, and even play a tune. These simple but powerful materials promise resilient, customizable, and functional moving parts at the nanoscale, and also form a bridge between real-world machines and their molecular counterparts.