Agilent Technologies announced the recent installation of an Agilent 5600LS atomic force microscope with scanning microwave microscopy at the Cambridge Graphene Centre (CGC) in the United Kingdom. The CGC, one of the key consortium partners in the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) Graphene Flagship project, is directed by Andrea Ferrari, professor of nanotechnology at the University of Cambridge.
Graphene is the second layer of carbon atoms that are sp2 covalently bonded into a honeycomb lattice. Much of graphene’s appeal comes from its unique electronic properties that may one day make super-high-speed devices a reality. SMM, a unique, AFM-based electrical characterization technique developed by Agilent, will be used to explore various properties of graphene and related materials (e.g., capacitance, impedance and dielectric properties) at the nanoscale.
The Graphene Flagship is a joint, coordinated research initiative of unprecedented scale. It is an academic-industrial consortium focused on a breakthrough in technological innovation. Research will encompass materials production to components and system integration, and targets a number of specific goals that leverage the unique properties of graphene and related materials.
This was chosen as one of only two FET flagship projects by the European Commission. Each project is expected to receive €1 billion over 10 years, half from the European Commission and half from EU member states. The UK has already invested £60 million to create a leading graphene research and technology hub.