Few layer graphene systems such as Bernal stacked bilayer and rhombohedral (ABC-) stacked trilayer offer the unique possibility to open an electric field tunable energy gap. To date, this energy gap has been experimentally confirmed in optical spectr
oscopy. Here we report the first direct observation of the electric field tunable energy gap in electronic transport experiments on doubly gated suspended ABC-trilayer graphene. From a systematic study of the non-linearities in current textit{versus} voltage characteristics and the temperature dependence of the conductivity we demonstrate that thermally activated transport over the energy-gap dominates the electrical response of these transistors. The estimated values for energy gap from the temperature dependence and from the current voltage characteristics follow the theoretically expected electric field dependence with critical exponent $3/2$. These experiments indicate that high quality few-layer graphene are suitable candidates for exploring novel tunable THz light sources and detectors.
Since the discovery of graphene -a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice - it was clear that this truly is a unique material system with an unprecedented combination of physical properties. Graphene is the thinnest membrane pre
sent in nature -just one atom thick- it is the strongest material, it is transparent and it is a very good conductor with room temperature charge mobilities larger than the typical mobilities found in silicon. The significance played by this new material system is even more apparent when considering that graphene is the thinnest member of a larger family: the few-layer graphene materials. Even though several physical properties are shared between graphene and its few-layers, recent theoretical and experimental advances demonstrate that each specific thickness of few-layer graphene is a material with unique physical properties.
