Researchers of the Institute of Physics of the CAS and University of Vienna work together on novel graphene-diamond heterojunctions within the project supported by the Czech Science Foundation (GACR) and Austrian Science Fund (FWF).
While the energy bandgap of 5.5 eV in the diamond electronic structure leads to the electrical resistivity as high as 1018 Ωm, graphene shows a zero bandgap at Fermi level behaving as a semimetal with extraordinary electronic transport properties. Various configurations of graphene on diamond are prepared by thermally activated catalytic process and the resulting electronic properties, material composition, and atomic structure are investigated in order to understand what happens when these two extreme forms of carbon meet in tight vicinity and to show way for practical applications in modern electronics. The results of this joint research were presented as a lecture at the 9th International Conference on Nanomaterials – Nanocon 2017 in Brno. The contribution of Semir Tulic on the topic of “Catalytic Reaction of Nickel Films with Diamond” has been selected as the best presentation and received Dr. Tasilo Prnka Prize for authors under 33 years.
At the same conference, a contribution of Štěpán Potocký on the topic of "Histology and Micro-CT Study of Diamond-coated Metal Bone Implants" won the third place in the Best Poster Competition. The contribution was the result of collaboration between the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Physiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and Medical faculties of the Charles University within the project of the Czech Health Research Council.
Honorable mention was awarded to a poster presentation of Marian Varga on the topic „Polycrystalline diamond films for optical and photonic applications“, to which a research team of Lukáš Ondič contributed within the Junior research project of Czech Science Foundation and which was co-financed by the project COST of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports.