Imaging resonant dissipation from individual atomic defects in graphene

Abstract

Watching electrons lose steam in graphene Although graphene can be fabricated to be extremely clean, it still has a nonzero electrical resistance. Resistance is associated with turning electrons' energy into heat, but how exactly does this happen? Halbertal et al. used a tiny scanning temperature probe based on a superconducting quantum interference device to investigate this problem. As the current flowed through a square-shaped sample of graphene, electrons lost energy predominantly in the vicinity of atomic-scale defects, which were few and far between in the bulk but much more common on the edges of the sample. Science , this issue p. 1303