Date of Award

Spring 2023

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

Physics and Astronomy

First Advisor

Scott Crittenden

Abstract

In 2007, detection of individual molecules with a solid-state gas sensor was reported for first time by Schedin et al. where they used micromechanically-cleaved graphene for their sensing material, which exhibits isotropic and homogeneous conduction [1]. However, despite the novelty and popularity of their work, it has never been repeated. Further, we found their associated calculations to be self-inconsistent by a factor of 103 . So, hoping to account for and resolve this discrepancy, we outline the plan we had to reproduce their experiment. We also justify any substantial modifications, particularly our choice to use epitaxial graphene instead. Then, we cover our preliminary measurements, the issues we encountered with anisotropic conduction in our samples, and our attempt to fix them via a simple anisotropic conduction model we derive. Finally, we discuss our attempt to verify our model and the critical issues we encountered due to non-homogeneous conduction in our samples, which rendered them obsolete for our purposes here, ending our research.

Rights

© 2023, Kenneth Stephen Stephenson

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