GAO Hongjun and colleagues from CAS Institute of Physics have achieved atomically precise folding of graphene nanostructures through STM tip-induced manipulation technology. They were able to fold graphene nanoislands in an arbitrarily chosen direction, constructed bilayer graphene stacks withs a tunable twist angle and a tubular edge connection between the layers, and created intramolecular junctions of bicrystal graphene nanoislands. Atomically precise “origami” can be used for the construction of quantum materials and quantum devices.

CAS news release, January 16, 2020