Researchers at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) have reported a breakthrough after making graphene visible on gallium arsenide for the first time.
Graphene has been described as the perfect partner for gallium arsenide, the semiconductor which is the starting material of many highly-efficient optoelectronic components.
Previously only possible on silicon oxide, scientists at PTB has successfully made graphene visible on gallium arsenide with a normal light optical microscope by vapour-coating several layers with aluminium arsenide.
"Even with optically similar materials it is possible, in a manner of speaking, to grow interference effects," explained Dr Franz-Josef Ahlers, the responsible department head at PTB.
"This principle is known from optical interference filters. We have adapted it for our purposes."
Earlier in the year, researtchers at the Max-Born-Institute in Berlin discovered that graphite behaves like a semiconductor in ultrafast time scales, paving the way for the development of optoelectronic devices based on carbon.