Graphene quantum dot bolometers for high frequency EPR of single molecule magnets

Graphene’s properties, including broadband absorption and a small heat capacity, make it an ideal material for hot-electron bolometers. By nanostructuring graphene to open a quantum confinement gap, we have fabricated bolometers with extremely high responsivity. We use these graphene quantum bolometers to perform EPR spectroscopy of single molecule magnets (SMMs). We take advantage of the bolometers’ extreme sensitivity to conduct these measurements on thin layers of SMMs deposited by sublimation, allowing for the observation of substrate effects not detectable when measuring bulk samples of SMMs using standard techniques.