And here you though pencil lead was only good for writing. As it turns out, when you take graphite and whittle it down to a two-dimensional structure, the stuff becomes pretty amazing. Terahertz amazing, as in the stuff is predicted to allow us to replace silicon-based microelectronics with parts that are 100-1000 times faster. It is pretty impressive stuff, especially if it can do the job more cheaper and more efficiently than silicon. I won’t abandon my hopes for light based computing, but instead of silicon waveguides (DOI: 10.1021/nl803868k), maybe I should start to look into ways to create the same device using graphene. To summarize, for those keeping track of the latest in graphene news, we have IBM coming out with their announcement of finally being able to open a bandgap for graphene field-effect transistors (FETs) and now Penn State can fabricate sheets of pure graphene on 100mm wafers. It still involves silicon and the sizes are about 200mm off from what is currently used in the industry, but we’re getting there and we are getting there fast.