/ News
Research gives insight into graphene-metal junctions
Graphene appears to have many of the properties needed to usher in the next generation of electronic devices. The next step in building those devices, however, requires creating junctions that connect graphene to the external world through at least two metal wires. A two-terminal junction is a graphene ribbon with two metal contacts. A University of Arkansas researcher and his colleagues have developed a better understanding of how these graphene-metal interfaces affect the movement of electrons through two-terminal junctions.
Salvador Barraza-Lopez, assistant professor of physics, Markus Kindermann of Georgia Institute of Technology, and M.Y. Chou of Georgia Tech and the Academia Sinica in Taiepi, Taiwan, report their findings in NanoLetters.
"If you want to use graphene for devices, you want to understand what will happen with metal contacts," Barraza-Lopez says.
Current theories about graphene devices assume that the contacts that move electricity from one point to another will also be composed of doped graphene, meaning that the contacts have a large amount of electronic charge, as actual metals would have. But contacts in real devices are made of transition metals, and those metal contacts will form bonds with graphene.
"When you form covalent bonds, you destroy the unique electronic properties of graphene," Barraza-Lopez says. "So we thought it was important to calculate the transport of electrons going beyond the assumption that the contacts themselves are (doped) graphene."
He and his colleagues set out to look at how electrons can move through graphene junctions with titanium, which is used by many experimental teams as a contact with graphene: They considered the material properties of actual junctions, and contrasted their findings with more basic models already available. Their calculations were done using the principles of quantum mechanics and state-of-the-art computational facilities.
Within quantum mechanics, the electrons at these graphene-metal junctions behave much like a light beam does when it is shone on a crystal—some of the light scatters and some of it goes through. For graphene junctions the electronic transparency of the material indicates how many of the electrons on one contact make it through the other metal contact. In this work, the researchers have provided the most accurate calculations of the electronic transparency of realistic graphene-metal junctions to date.
"Our results shed light on the complex behavior of graphene junctions … and pave the way for realistic design of potential electronic devices," the researchers wrote.
Source: http://www.rdmag.com/News/2012/09/Materials-Research-Gives-Insight-Into-Graphene-Metal-Junctions/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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