(Invited Talk) AC transport at the nanoscale: opportunities and challenges for a new breed of carbon-based devices

L. E. F. FOA TORRES; H. L. CALVO; S. ROCHE; H. M. PASTAWSKI

Maragogi

Simposio; 20th Latin American Symposium on Solid State Physics; 2011

USC - Brasil

www.slafes-xx.ifsc.usp.br/More than a century ago, the use of alternating currents (ac) sparked a revolution that changed our modern world. Today, the use of ac fields has reached the nanoscale. Here, the interplay between the quantum coherence of the electrons, inelastic effects and dynamical symmetry breaking offers fascinating opportunities for both basic research and applications. The interest on time-dependent excitations by electromagnetic fields or gate voltages has been steadily growing [1, 2] and many captivating phenomena such as photon-assisted tunneling, coherent destruction of tunnelling [3] and quantum charge pumping [4, 5] have been unveiled.Carbon nanotubes and graphene offer a promising ground for these studies. Here we give a brief overview of our research on driven electronic transport in these materials [6]. We will try to shedlight on questions such as: Is it possible to use ac fields to control the electric response (current and noise)? Could we achieve tunable bandgaps through these excitations? Recent results on the use oflaser fields to tune the electronic properties of graphene will be emphasized.