Single-step deposition of high mobility graphene at reduced temperatures

Creators: Boyd, D. A.; Lin, Wei-Hsiang; Hsu, C.-C.; Teague, M. L.; Chen, C.-C.; Lo, Y.-Y.; Chan, W.-Y.; Su, W.-B.; Cheng, T.-C.; Chang, C.-S.; Wu, C.-I.; Yeh, N.-C.

Abstract

Current methods of chemical vapour deposition (CVD) of graphene on copper are complicated by multiple processing steps and by high temperatures required in both preparing the copper and inducing subsequent film growth. Here we demonstrate a plasma-enhanced CVD chemistry that enables the entire process to take place in a single step, at reduced temperatures (<420 °C), and in a matter of minutes. Growth on copper foils is found to nucleate from arrays of well-aligned domains, and the ensuing films possess sub-nanometre smoothness, excellent crystalline quality, low strain, few defects and room-temperature electrical mobility up to (6.0±1.0) × 10^4 cm^2 V^(−1) s^(−1), better than that of large, single-crystalline graphene derived from thermal CVD growth. These results indicate that elevated temperatures and crystalline substrates are not necessary for synthesizing high-quality graphene.

Additional Information

© 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. Received 7 June 2014. Accepted 11 February 2015. Published 18 March 2015. This work at Caltech was supported by National Science Foundation under the Institute of Quantum Information and Matter, and by Moore and Kavli Foundations through the Kavli Nanoscience Institute. The work in Taiwan was supported by the National Science Council under contracts 100-2911-I-002-514 and 101-2628-M-002-004. We thank Professor George Rossman for the use of his Raman spectrometer. D.A.B. specially thanks late Professor David G. Goodwin for his friendship and mentorship. D.A.B. conceived the PECVD-graphene growth idea. D.A.B., W.-H.L. and C.-C.H. developed the PECVD-graphene growth procedures and carried out Raman spectroscopic characterizations. C.-C.H. carried out SEM and atomic force microscopy studies on graphene samples. W.-H.L. processed the graphene FET devices and carried out the mobility measurements and analysis. Y.-Y.L, W.-B.S., C.-S.C. and M.L.T. performed the STM studies. T.-C. C. performed the XPS studies and analysis of the graphene samples. C.-I. Wu coordinated the device fabrication, mobility, XPS and part of the STM experiments. C.-C.C. and M.L.T. conducted the simulations and analysis of the STM data. N.-C.Y. coordinated with all co-authors on the design, planning and execution of the experiments, data analysis and simulations, and wrote the manuscript together with D.A.B. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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