Graphene: synthesis and applications

Graphene, since the demonstration of its easy isolation by the exfoliation of graphite in 2004 by Novoselov, Geim and co-workers, has been attracting enormous attention in the scientific community. Because of its unique properties, high hopes have been placed on it for technological applications in many areas. Here we will briefly review aspects of two of these application areas: analog electronics and photonics/optoelectronics. We will discuss the relevant material properties, device physics, and some of the available results. Of course, we cannot rely on graphite exfoliation as the source of graphene for technological applications, so we will start by introducing large scale graphene growth techniques.