Basic Physics of Functionalized Graphite

This book summarizes the basic physics of graphite and newly discovered phenomena in this material. The book contains the knowledge needed to understand novel properties of functionalized graphite demonstrating the occurrence of remarkable phenomena in disordered graphite and graphite-based heterostructures. It also discusses applications of thin graphitic samples in future electronics. Graphite consists of a stack of nearly decoupled two-dimensional graphene planes. Because of the low dimensionality and the presence of Dirac fermions, much of graphite physics resembles that of graphene. On the other hand, the multi-layered nature of the graphite structure together with structural and/or chemical disorder are responsible for phenomena that are not observed yet in graphene, such as ferromagnetic order and superconductivity. Each chapter was written by one or more experts in the field whose contributions were relevant in the (re)discovery of (un)known phenomena in graphite. The book is intended as reference for beginners and experts in the field, introducing them to many aspects of the new physics of graphite, with a fresh overview of recently found phenomena and the theoretical frames to understand them.

Pablo David Esquinazi started his physics studies at the University of Tucuman (Argentine) in 1974 before deciding in 1976 to continue at the Balseiro Institute in Bariloche (Argentine), where he finished his Ph.D. in 1983 working on amorphous superconductors under the supervision of Prof. F. de la Cruz. After research stays in Heidelberg and Bariloche he finished his habilitation at Bayreuth University (Germany) in 1991 working in very low temperature physics issues like two-level systems in solids (Prof. F. Pobell division) and the physics of vortices in high-temperature superconductors. For his contribution to understand the thermally activated behaviour of the flux line lattice in high-temperature superconductors and for the measurements at ultralow temperatures of the acoustic properties of amorphous and crystalline solids he received the Rudolf-Kaiser-Award in 1993. Since 1980 PE published more than 280 papers in peer review journals, having a h-index of 45 and an i10-index of 165. He is editor of the Book: “Tunneling systems in amorphous and crystalline solids”, published by Springer. His main research activities in recent years were related to defect-induced magnetism in solids, including graphite and oxides, and to the search for high-temperature superconductivity in graphite. ?