
Electrons flowing like liquid in graphene start a new wave of physics - carapace
https://phys.org/news/2017-08-electrons-liquid-graphene-physics.html
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QAPereo
The study in question, which is much more modest in terms of claims, and much
more interesting:
[http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nphys...](http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nphys4240.html?foxtrotcallback=true)

Key point:

 _Notably, the measured conductance exceeds the maximum conductance possible
for free electrons. This anomalous behaviour is attributed to collective
movement of interacting electrons, which ‘shields’ individual carriers from
momentum loss at sample boundaries_

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nine_k
Wow, could we call graphene a semisuperconductor now?

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azag0
Rather than meaning “superb conductivity”, superconductivity is a specific
electronic state of matter in which the conductivity drops to zero at a
certain critical temperature, and magnetic fields are “expelled” from the
material. In conventional (low-temperature) superconductors, this is caused by
formation of electron pairs (Cooper pairs) that behave as bosons. There is no
established mechanism for unconventional (high-temperature) superconductivity.

In any case, the present study does not mean that graphene is a
superconductor.

~~~
StavrosK
Conductivity drops to zero? Did you mean resistance?

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azag0
Correct.

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kurthr
Interesting that increased scattering can increase average current and
electron velocity (in a fluidic state) by protecting higher velocity electrons
from the edges of the flow. It allows higher conductivity than even
theoretically possible in a metal.

I'm usually pessimistic of the hype surrounding graphene, but this is an
interesting result. I do hope that there is a bit more room for something like
Moore's law.

Some of the biggies were still investing... as of 2014.

[http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/content-tracks/servers-
sto...](http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/content-tracks/servers-storage/ibm-
invests-3bn-in-graphene-semiconductor-research/87785.fullarticle)

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deepnotderp
Huh.

Two questions:

1\. Any chance this can be replicated in 2D topological insulators?

2\. Any chance this could work at room temperature? The paper seems to say
<150K.

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SomeStupidPoint
Tangential question: are the electron "fluid dynamics" of graphene inherently
"2D" because it's such a "layered" material and we're talking about such thin
slices?

That is, do vortices in the flow behave as if confined to 2 dimensions?

Even if we have to given it a nitrogen bath, it would be _incredibly_
interesting if you could experiment with 2D electron fluid dynamics just by
creating graphene structures. (Which I believe can be created via laser
circuit printing -- considerably easier than the process for similar things
now.)

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civilitty
Yes but bulk graphene has a lot of imperfections changing the electron flow.

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SomeStupidPoint
This isn't something I know a huge amount about -- could you elaborate?

(I'm mostly just unsure of the scale we're talking about -- what qualifies as
"bulk" and what's "a lot"?)

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danmaz74
Tangential: are there any commercially-deployed graphene based technologies
yet?

~~~
civilitty
Graphene is used in place of other carbon sources in batteries anodes [1] as
well as a variety of inks [2]

[1] [https://angstronmaterials.com/product-category/graphene-
for-...](https://angstronmaterials.com/product-category/graphene-for-energy-
by-nanotek-instruments/)

[2] [https://vorbeck.com/pages/products-
conductiveinks](https://vorbeck.com/pages/products-conductiveinks)

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ifoundthetao
Neat!

