Two group members recently received poster presentation awards. Over the summer of 2009 graduate research assistant Abhishek Sundararajan was awarded first prize in the annual Department of Physics and Astronomy Poster Presentation Event. In the Fall of 2009 Jimmy Rop, a 2009 summer research assistant attending Berea College, was awarded 2nd prize at the annual meeting of the Kentucky Academy of Science.

Poster award recipient group members, Abhishek Sundararajan (left) and Jimmy Rop, with Doug Strachan (right) at the UK Physics Poster Event (Summer 2009).

Our work on the surface potential of few-layer graphene films is featured as the recent cover article of the January 2009 issue of Nano Letters.

Using electrostatic force microscopy we probe the charge screening features of few-layer graphene films.

The work was performed in collaboration with S. S. Datta, E. J. Mele , and A. T. Johnson.

Crystallographic etching of few-layer graphene which we recently reported in Nano Letters was highlighted by Nature Nanotechnology.

By utilizing metallic nanoparticles, we are able to etch few-layer graphene samples along specific crystallographic directions.

This work was performed in collaboration with S. S. Datta, S. M. Khamis , and A. T. Johnson.

Our development of a self-balancing method for mass production of nanogap electrodes has recently been highlighted in Nanomaterials News.

The work appeared in Nano Letters and was performed in collaboration with D. E. Johnston and A. T. Johnson.

In a recent interview by Nature Methods we discuss some of the benefits of working in collaborative interdisciplinary nanotechnology centers.