Facile technique for the removal of metal contamination from graphene

Metal contamination deposited on few-layer graphene (3 ± 1 monolayers) grown on SiC(0001) was successfully removed from the surface, using low cost adhesive tape. More than 99% of deposited silver contamination was removed from the surface via peeling, causing minimal damage to the graphene. A small change in the adhesion of graphene to the SiC(0001) substrate was indicated by changes observed in pleat defects on the surface; however, atomic resolution images show the graphene lattice remains pristine. Thin layers of contamination deposited via an electron gun during Auger electron spectroscopy/low energy electron diffraction measurements were also found to be removable by this technique. This contamination showed similarities to “roughened” graphene previously reported in the literature

4H-SiC Schottky diode arrays for X-ray detection

Five SiC Schottky photodiodes for X-ray detection have been electrically characterized at room temperature. One representative diode was also electrically characterized over the temperature range 20°C to 140 °C. The performance at 30 °C of all five X-ray detectors, in both current mode and for photon counting X-ray spectroscopy was investigated. The diodes were fabricated in an array form such that they could be operated as either a 2×2 or 1×3 pixel array. Although the devices showed double barrier heights, high ideality factors and higher than expected leakage current at room temperature (12 nA/cm2 at an internal electric field of 105 kV/ cm), they operated as spectroscopic photon counting soft X-ray detectors uncooled at 30 °C. The measured energy resolution (FWHM at 17.4 keV, Mo Kα) varied from 1.36 to 1.68 keV among different diodes

Determination of the adhesion energy of graphene on SiC(0001) via measurement of pleat defects

Pleat defects in graphene grown on SiC(0001) were studied and used to determine the adhesion energy between few-layer graphene (3 ± 1 monolayers) and the substrate. An adhesion energy of 3.0±1.61.0J/m2 was determined using a continuum model describing the buckling of the film and delamination. The continuum model used can be applied to any graphene-substrate system in which pleat formation occurs due to differences in thermal expansion. The large value of adhesion energy observed for graphene on SiC, compared with that on materials such as Ni, Cu, and SiO2, arises from delamination of the graphene film and buffer layer from the SiC substrate, which requires the breaking of covalent bonds. Preferential orientation of pleats at 120° with respect to each other was also observed; this is attributed to favorable formation of pleats along high symmetry directions of the graphene lattice

Dirac point and transconductance of top-gated graphene field-effect transistors operating at elevated temperature

Top-gated graphene field-effect transistors (GFETs) have been fabricated using bilayer epitaxial graphene grown on the Si-face of 4H-SiC substrates by thermal decomposition of silicon carbide in high vacuum. Graphene films were characterized by Raman spectroscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy, Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy, and Hall measurements to estimate graphene thickness, morphology, and charge transport properties. A 27 nm thick Al2O3 gate dielectric was grown by atomic layer deposition with an e-beam evaporated Al seed layer. Electrical characterization of the GFETs has been performed at operating temperatures up to 100 °C limited by deterioration of the gate dielectric performance at higher temperatures. Devices displayed stable operation with the gate oxide dielectric strength exceeding 4.5 MV/cm at 100 °C. Significant shifting of the charge neutrality point and an increase of the peak transconductance were observed in the GFETs as the operating temperature was elevated from room temperature to 100 °C