UC Berkeley

Carbon nanomaterials, and especially graphene (a 2D carbon allotrope), possess unique electronic, optical, and mechanical properties and allow access to both new physical phenomena and reinventions of familiar technologies. In the first part of this thesis (chapter 2), the low carrier density and high conductivity of graphene are used to repurpose the electric field effect (used for many decades in transistors) into a universally-applicable doping method for electrically-contacted semiconductors. This method, referred to as "screening-engineered field-effect photovoltaics" as the electric field doping is enabled by a carefully-designed poorly-screening electrode (e.g. graphene), is shown to open up many new low-cost and abundant semiconductors for use in high efficiency solar cells. We extend this method beyond ultrathin materials such as graphene and show that 1D nanowire electrodes made of any material also allow penetration of applied electric fields. The next part of this thesis (chapter 3) focuses on the fundamental properties of graphene -- its structure, synthesis, characterization, and manipulation -- and on using graphene as a building block for other nanostructures: grafold, graphene sandwiches and veils, and graphritos. In chapter 4, various graphene electronics are constructed and tested. Graphene field-effect transistors (FETs) and p-n junctions are fabricated to study the influence of the substrate on graphene carrier mobility and doping. Graphene nanoribbons and grafold FETs are made to investigate the effects of additional confinement on electronic transport. Chapter 5 summarizes synthesis methods and additional experiments with other nanomaterials, including dichalcogenides and chalcogenides (magnesium diboride, gallium selenide, and tin sulfide), carbon nanomaterials (carbon nanotubes and graphene), and copper oxide. Additional measurement and fabrication methods are discussed in appendix A.