Single-Domain-Like Graphene with ZnO-Stitching by Defect-Selective Atomic Layer Deposition

Large-area graphene films produced by means of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) are polycrystalline and thus contain numerous grain boundaries that can greatly degrade their performance and produce inhomogeneous properties. A better grain boundary engineering in CVD graphene is essential to realize the full potential of graphene in large-scale applications. Here, we report a defect-selective atomic layer deposition (ALD) for stitching grain boundaries of CVD graphene with ZnO so as to increase the connectivity between grains. In the present ALD process, ZnO with hexagonal wurtzite structure was selectively grown mainly on the defect-rich grain boundaries to produce ZnO-stitched CVD graphene with well-connected grains. For the CVD graphene film after ZnO stitching, the inter-grain mobility is notably improved with only a little change in free carrier density. We also demonstrate how ZnO-stitched CVD graphene can be successfully integrated into wafer-scale arrays of top-gated field effect transistors on 4-inch Si and polymer substrates, revealing remarkable device-to-device uniformity.