Stacking control in graphene-based materials: a promising way for fascinating physical properties

Abstract

Graphene, defined as a single atomic plane of graphite, is a semimetal with small overlap between the valence and the conduction bands. The stacking of graphene up to several atomic layers can produce diverse physical properties, depending on the stacking way. The bilayer graphene is also a semimetal, adopting the AB-stacked (or Bernal-stacked) structure or the rare AA-stacked structure. The trilayer or a few layer graphene (FLG) can be semimetal or semiconductor, depending on whether it takes Bernal (ABA) stacking or rhombohedral (ABC) stacking. We will give a perspective on the recent two mild approaches to control the stacking via local transition from ABC stacking into ABA stacking. It is believed that with the rapid development of graphene-based materials, these techniques for stacking control can be used for more complex structure to fulfill fascinating properties and devices.