• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.433-433
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• 2011

Since the concept of graphene was established, it has been intensively investigated by researchers. The unique characteristics of graphene have been reported, the graphene attracted a lot of attention for material overcomes the limitations of existing semiconductor materials. Because of these trends, economical fabrication technique is becoming more and more important topic. Especially, the epitaxial growth method by sublimating the silicon atoms on Silicon carbide (SiC) substrate have been reported on the mass production of high quality graphene sheets. Although SiC exists in a variety of polytypes, the 3C-SiC polytypes is the only polytype that grows directly on Si substrate. To practical use of graphene for electronic devices, the technique, forming the graphene on 3C-SiC(111)/Si structure, is much helpful technique. In this paper, we report on the growth of graphene on 3C-SiC(111) surface. To investigate the morphology of formed graphene on the 3C-SiC(111) surface, the radial distribution function (RDF) was calculated using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Through the comparison between the kinetic energies and the diffusion energy barrier of surface carbon atoms, we successfully determined that the graphitization strongly depends on temperature. This graphitization occurs above the annealing temperature of 1500K, and is also closely related to the behavior of carbon atoms on SiC surface. By analyzing the results, we found that the diffusion energy barrier is the key parameter of graphene growth on SiC surface.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.184.1-184.1
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• 2014

Nanostructures on Graphene surface receive highly attraction for many applications ranging from sensing technologies to molecular electronics. Recently J. Jasuja et al. reported the electrical property tailoring and Raman enhancement by the implantation and growth of dendritic gold nanostructures on graphene derivatives [ACSNANO, 3, 2358, 2013] Here, we introduced Si vapor on the graphen to induce the nanostructure. The surface property change of graphene by controlling the amount of Si and the thickness of graphene were investigated using high resolution photoemission spectroscopy (HRPES), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The Si nanostructures on graphene show the thickness dependency of graphene, and the size of Si nano-structure reached to 7 nm and 15 nm on the mono and the multilayered graphene after $30{\AA}$ Si evaporation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.9-10
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• 2010

Since the discovery of graphene by mechanical exfoliation from graphite[1], various fabrication methods are available today such as chemical exfoliation, epitaxial graphene on SiC substrates, etc. In view of industrialization, the mechanical exfoliation method may not be an option. Epitaxial graphene on SiC substrates, in this respect, is by far more practical because the method consists of conventional thermal treatments familiar to semiconductor industry. Still, the use of the SiC substrate itself, and hence the incompatibility with the Si technology, lessens the importance of this technology in its future industrialization. In this context, we have tackled the problem of forming graphene on Si substrates (GOS). Our strategy is to form an ultrathin (~80 nm) SiC layer on top of a Si substrate, and to graphitize the top SiC layers by a vacuum annealing. We have actually succeeded in forming the GOS structure [2,3,4]. Raman-scattering microscopy indicates presence of few-layer graphene (FLG) formed on our annealed SiC/Si heterostructure, with the G ($1580\;cm^{-1}$) and the G'($2700\;cm^{-1}$) bands, both related to ideal graphene, clearly observed. Presence of the D ($1350\;cm^{-1}$) band indicates presence of defects in our GOS films, whose elimination remains as a challenge in the future. To obtain qualified graphene films on Si substrate, formation of qualified SiC films is crucial in the first place, and is achieved by tuning the growth parameters into a process window[5]. With a potential for forming graphene films on large-scale Si wafers, GOS is a powerful candidate as a key technology in bringing graphene into silicon technology.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.47-52
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• 2013

Graphene has been synthesized on 100- and 300-nm-thick Ni/$SiO_2$/Si substrates with $CH_4$ gas (1 SCCM) diluted in mixed gases of 10% $H_2$ and 90% Ar (99 SCCM) at $900^{\circ}C$ by using inductively-coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition (ICP-CVD). The film morphology of 100-nm-thick Ni changed to islands on $SiO_2$/Si substrate after heat treatment at $900^{\circ}C$ for 2 min because of grain growth, whereas 300-nm-thick Ni still maintained a film morphology. Interestingly, suspended graphene was formed among Ni islands on 100-nm-thick Ni/$SiO_2$/Si substrate for the very short growth of 1 sec. In addition, the size of the graphene domains was much larger than that of Ni grains of 300-nm-thick Ni/$SiO_2$/Si substrate. These results suggest that graphene growth is strongly governed by the direct formation of graphene on the Ni surface due to reactive carbon radicals highly activated by ICP, rather than to well-known carbon precipitation from carbon-containing Ni. The D peak intensity of the Raman spectrum of graphene on 300-nm-thick Ni/$SiO_2$/Si was negligible, suggesting that high-quality graphene was formed. The 2D to G peak intensity ratio and the full-width at half maximum of the 2D peak were approximately 2.6 and $47cm^{-1}$, respectively. The several-layer graphene showed a low sheet resistance value of $718{\Omega}/sq$ and a high light transmittance of 87% at 550 nm.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.246-249
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• 2013

Graphene was obtained on Cu foil by thermal decomposition method. A gas mixture of $H_2$ and $CH_4$ and an ambient annealing temperature of $1,000^{\circ}C$ were used during the deposition for 30 Min., and for the transfer onto $SiO_2/Si$ and Si substrates. The physical properties of graphene were investigated with regard to the effect ofnitrogen atom doping and the various substrates used. The G/2D ratio decreased when the graphene became monolayer graphene. The graphene grown on $SiO_2/Si$ substrate showed a low intensity of the G/2D ratio, because the polarity of the $SiO_2$ layer improved the quality of graphene. The intensity of the G/2D ratio of graphene doped with nitrogen atoms increased with the doping time. The quality of graphene depended on the concentration of the nitrogen doping and chemical properties of substrates. High-quality monolayer graphene was obtained with a low G/2D ratio. The increase in the intensity of the G/2D ratios corresponded to a blue shift in the 2D peaks.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.459-459
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• 2011

Graphene has many fascinating material properties such as high electron mobility, high optical transparency, excellent thermal conductivity, superior Young's modulus, etc. Several studies have recently found that single-layer graphene is chemically more reactive than few-layer graphene when supported on silicon dioxide substrates with sub-nm roughness. In this study, we have investigated the influence of substrates on chemical reactivity of graphene. Morphology and thermal oxidation behavior of graphene on atomically flat mica substrates were studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Raman spectroscopy compared to graphene on SiO2/Si substrates. Notably, oxidation of single-layer graphene proceeds more slowly on mica than SiO2/Si. Detailed analysis led to a conclusion that deformation along the out-of-plane direction enhances reactivity of graphene.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.125-125
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• 2012

Graphene was epitaxially grown on a 6H-SiC(0001) substrate by thermal decomposition of SiC under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. Using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), we monitored the evolution of the graphene growth as a function of the temperature. We found that the evaporation of Si occurred dominantly from the corner of the step rather than on the terrace. A carbon-rich $(6{\sqrt{3}}{\times}6{\sqrt{3}})R30^{\circ}$ layer, monolayer graphene, and bilayer graphene were identified by measuring the roughness, step height, and atomic structures. Defect structures such as nanotubes and scattering defects on the monolayer graphene are also discussed. Furthermore, we confirmed that the Dirac points (ED) of the monolayer and bilayer graphene were clearly resolved by scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS).

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.277-277
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• 2013

The epitaxial graphene on the 4H- or 6H-SiC(0001) surface has been intensively studied due to the possibility of wafer-scale growt. However the existence of interface layer (zero layer graphene) and its influence on the upper graphene layer have been considered as one of the main obstarcles for the industrial application. Among various methods tried to overcome the strong interaction with the substrate through the interface layer, it has been proved that the hydrogen intercalation successfully passivate the Si dangling bond of the substrate and can produce the quasi-free standing epitaxial graphene (QFEG) layers on the siC(0001) surface. In this study, we report the results of the angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and Raman spectroscopy for the QFEG layers produced by ex-situ and in-situ hydrogen intercalation.From the ARPES measurement, we confirmed that the Dirac points of QFEG layers exactly coincide with the Fermi level. The band structure of QFEG layer are sustainable upon thermal heating up to 1100 K and robust against the deposition of several metals andmolecular deposition. We also investigated the strain of the QFEG layers by using Raman spectroscopy measurement. From the change of the 2D peak position of graphene Raman spectrum, we found out that unlike the strong compressive strain in the normal epitaxial graphene on the SiC(0001) surface, the strain of the QFEG layer are significantly released and almost similar to that of the mechanically exfoliated graphene on the silicon oxide substrate. These results indicated that various ideas proposed for the ideal free-standing graphene can be tested based on the QFEG graphene layers grown on the SiC(0001) surface.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.268-272
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• 2015

We report the systematic study to reduce extrinsic doping in graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). To investigate the effect of crystallinity of graphene on the extent of the extrinsic doping, graphene samples with different levels of crystal quality: poly-crystalline and single-crystalline graphene (PCG and SCG), are employed. The graphene suspended in air is almost undoped regardless of its crystallinity, whereas graphene placed on an $SiO_2/Si$ substrate is spontaneously p-doped. The extent of p-doping from the $SiO_2$ substrate in SCG is slightly lower than that in PCG, implying that the defects in graphene play roles in charge transfer. However, after annealing treatment, both PCG and SCG are heavily p-doped due to increased interaction with the underlying substrate. Extrinsic doping dramatically decreases after annealing treatment when PCG and SCG are placed on the top of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) substrate, confirming that h-BN is the ideal substrate for reducing extrinsic doping in CVD graphene.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.16.2-16.2
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• 2011

Graphene has attracted significant attention due to its unique characteristics and promising nanoelectronic device applications. For practical device applications, it is essential to synthesize high-quality and large-area graphene films. Graphene has been synthesized by eloborated mechanical exfoliation of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite, chemical reduction of exfoliated grahene oxide, thermal decomposition of silicon carbide, and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on metal substrates such as Ni, Cu, Ru etc. The CVD has advantages over some of other methods in terms of mass production on large-areas substrates and it can be easily separated from the metal substrate and transferred to other desired substrates. Especially, plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD) can be very efficient to synthesize high-quality graphene. Little information is available on the synthesis of graphene by PECVD even though PECVD has been demonstrated to be successful in synthesizing various carbon nanostructures such as carbon nanotubes and nanosheets. In this study, we synthesized graphene on $Ni/SiO_2/Si$ and Cu plate substrates with CH4 diluted in $Ar/H_2$ (10%) by using an inductively-coupled PECVD (ICPCVD). High-quality graphene was synthesized at as low as $700^{\circ}C$ with 600 W of plasma power while graphene layer was not formed without plasma. The growth rate of graphene was so fast that graphene films fully covered on substrate surface just for few seconds $CH_4$ gas supply. The transferred graphene films on glass substrates has a transmittance at 550 nm is higher 94%, indicating 1~3 monolayers of graphene were formed. FETs based on the grapheme films transferred to $Si/SiO_2$ substrates revealed a p-type. We will further discuss the synthesis of graphene and doped graphene by ICPVCD and their characteristics.