Guest lectures

Graphene materials in the flatland

The University of Exeter laid on a warm welcome for 2010 Nobel Prize winner, Professor Kostya Novoselov.

A capacity crowd of nearly 400 packed into the University’s biggest lecture theatre to hear about the research which led to the discovery of graphene, the thinnest known conducting material.

Professor Novoselov, along with Andre Geim, is famous for his discovery of the material – a single layer of graphite just one atom thick which has some remarkable properties and could revolutionise computing and high-tech devices.

See Professor Kostya Novoselov's talk from Thursday 28 October 2010.

Nonlinear Nanoelectromechanics

This invited lecture was part of the Functional Materials theme of the University's Science Strategy and was introduced by Professor Bill Barnes. We were delighted that Professor Jari Kinaret (Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden and Lead for the EU Graphene Flagship project) gave an evening lecture on Wednesday 26 October 2011.

Professor Kinaret's research activities are divided into fundamental and applied studies on the border between physics and electronics. The main research direction is nanoelectromechanical structures comprising carbon nanotubes or graphene. These nanocarbons are particularly well suited for electromechanical devices such as resonators: they are the stiffest materials known to man, which together with the low masses and good electrical properties enable devices with very high frequencies. The nanoscale dimensions of the structures result in both engineering challenges and new physical phenomena. In particular, both the electrical and mechanical properties exhibit strong nonlinearities that show up as new physics and that can be used to design new types of devices.

The lecture described the evolution of carbon-based nanoelectromechanics covering both applied aspects such as tuneable resonators and mechanical mass spectrometers and fundamental issues such as quantum nanoelectromechanics.

You can listen to the Jari Kinaret presentation (mp3, 65mb)