Workshop on Graphene and Topological Insulators
School of Physics, IPM
19-20 October, 2011

A two-day workshop on recent progress in graphene and topological insulators is planned to be held at IPM, Tehran. This workshop is intended to provide advanced research information about the on-going activities in some of the hottest subjects in contemporary physics and materials science. Graphene is a newly realized two-dimensional (2D) electron system which has engendered a great deal of interest because of the new physics which it exhibits and because of its potential as a new material for electronic technology. Graphene is considered as a perspective material for 'post-silicon electronics', and the first graphene transistors and flat touch-screen panel device have already  been created and studied. Being both transparent and highly conducting, graphene has a very high potential for use in optical devices. Furthermore, certain insulators are characterized by boundary properties that are highly robust in the presence of disorder, fluctuations and perturbations. The 2D  topological insulator is a quantum spin Hall  insulator, which is a close relation of the integer Quantum Hall state. A 3D topological insulator supports novel spin polarized 2D Dirac fermions on its surface.