Researchers develop method for wiring up individual graphene nanoribbons

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana─Champaign and the University of Nebraska─Lincoln have developed a method for “wiring up” graphene nanoribbons (GNRs). Using a direct-write scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) based process, the nanometer-scale metal contacts were fabricated on individual GNRs and could control the electronic character of the GNRs. 

The team says that this is the first demonstration of making metal contacts to specific GNRs with certainty and that those contacts induce device functionality needed for transistor function.