Quantum confinement of electrons in 0D and 1D structures, known as quantum dots and quantum wires, permits to address quantum properties at the single electron level. We have developed a novel nanopatterning technique, which uses H atoms as building blocks to rise atomically sharp barriers that efficiently confine graphene electrons. By means of STM, we have built graphene nanostructures, with arbitrary shapes and dimensions, in the scale of 2 to 1000 nanometers. The method permits to erase and rebuild the patterns at will, and it can be implemented on different graphene substrates.
Our STM experiments demonstrate that such graphene nanostructures confine very efficiently graphene Dirac quasiparticles, both in 1D and 0D structures.
ADVANCED MATERIALS 32, 2001119 (2020) Article