ScienceDaily (July 29, 2010) — Graphene, a sheet of pure carbon heralded as a possible replacement for silicon-based semiconductors, has been found to have a unique and amazing property that could make it even more suitable for future electronic devices.

Specifically, the electrons within each nanobubble segregate into quantized energy levels instead of occupying energy bands, as in unstrained graphene. The energy levels are identical to those that an electron would occupy if it were moving in circles in a very strong magnetic field, as high as 300 tesla, which is bigger than any laboratory can produce except in brief explosions, said Michael Crommie, professor of physics at UC Berkeley and a faculty researcher at LBNL

"By controlling where the electrons bunch up and at what energy, you could cause them to move more easily or less easily through graphene, in effect, controlling their conductivity, optical or microwave properties. Control of electron movement is the most essential part of any electronic device.""

When you crank up a magnetic field you start seeing very interesting behavior because the electrons spin in tiny circles," he said. "This effect gives us a new way to induce this behavior, even in the absence of an actual magnetic field."

Among the unusual behaviors observed of electrons in strong magnetic fields are the quantum Hall effect and the fractional quantum Hall effect, where at low temperatures electrons also fall into quantized energy levels.

Originally posted by LightFantastic
reply to post by Gentill Abdulla

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Nice find Gentill

Notice that the article describeds a pseudomagnetic field rather than an actual magnetic field in that the electons behave in certain ways as if they were contained by said powerful field.

The article isnt saying that they can use graphene bubbles to create powerful magnetic fields.