Exploring sp2-bonded materials: From graphene liquid cells to atomic collapse

Alex Zettl, Professor of Physics, Physics Department, UC Berkeley



I will discuss recent experiments on nanostructures based on sp2-bonded carbon and boron nitride, including determination of the detailed (dynamic) atomic structure in graphene and BN sheets using transmission electron microscopy, the imaging of foreign atoms and molecules within nanoscale environmental liquid cells, and the observation of atomic collapse long ago predicted for ultra-heavy nuclei.