The Carbon NanoSolenoid on the Cover of Nano Letters
Nano Letters features my image on the Cover of its January 2016 issue
Graphene forms helicoids, akin to the mathematical Riemann surfacefor log(z), naturally occurring as screw dislocations in graphite or anthracite. In the Nano Letters paper, my colleagues demonstrate that the miniscule pitch of such winding carbon ribbons endows them with largest magnetic inductance per volume, which surpasses any current technologies. If voltage is applied, electrical current must flow helically, producing near the center strong magnetic field orders of magnitude greater than that of planet Earth.
The image was produced from the actual atomic geometry, provided by Henry Yu, using VMD, our own Edgecount tool, MeshLab, Python scripting, and the mighty Gimp.