No Arabic abstract
The use of Raman scattering techniques to study the mechanical properties of graphene films is reviewed here. The determination of Gruneisen parameters of suspended graphene sheets under uni- and bi-axial strain is discussed and the values are compared to theoretical predictions. The effects of the graphene-substrate interaction on strain and to the temperature evolution of the graphene Raman spectra are discussed. Finally, the relation between mechanical and thermal properties is presented along with the characterization of thermal properties of graphene with Raman spectroscopy.
The effect of grain boundaries and wrinkles on the electrical properties of polycrystalline graphene is pronounced. Here we investigate the stitching between grains of polycrystalline graphene, specifically, overlapping of layers at the boundaries, grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and subsequently doped by the oxidized Cu substrate. We analyze overlapped regions between 60 and 220 nm wide via Raman spectroscopy, and find that some of these overlapped boundaries contain AB stacked bilayers. The Raman spectra from the overlapped grain boundaries are distinctly different from bilayer graphene and exhibit splitting of the G band peak. The degree of splitting, peak widths, as well as peak intensities depend on the width of the overlap. We attribute these features to inhomogeneous doping by charge carriers (holes) across the overlapped regions via the oxidized Cu substrate. As a result, the Fermi level at the overlapped grain boundaries lies between 0.3 and 0.4 eV below the charge neutrality point. Our results suggest an enhancement of electrical conductivity across overlapped grain boundaries, similar to previously observed measurements(1). The dependence of charge distribution on the width of overlapping of grain boundaries may have strong implications for the growth of large-area graphene with enhanced conductivity.
Graphene edges are of particular interest, since their chirality determines the electronic properties. Here we present a detailed Raman investigation of graphene flakes with well defined edges oriented at different crystallographic directions. The position, width and intensity of G and D peaks at the edges are studied as a function of the incident light polarization. The D-band is strongest for light polarized parallel to the edge and minimum for perpendicular orientation. Raman mapping shows that the D peak is localized in proximity of the edge. The D to G ratio does not always show a significant dependence on edge orientation. Thus, even though edges can appear macroscopically smooth and oriented at well defined angles, they are not necessarily microscopically ordered.
The room-temperature Raman signatures from graphene layers on sapphire and glass substrates were compared with those from graphene on GaAs substrate and on the standard Si/SiO2 substrate, which served as a reference. It was found that while G peak of graphene on Si/SiO2 and GaAs is positioned at 1580 cm-1 it is down-shifted by ~5 cm-1 for graphene-on-sapphire (GOS) and, in many cases, splits into doublets for graphene-on-glass (GOG) with the central frequency around 1580 cm-1. The obtained results are important for graphene characterization and its proposed graphene applications in electronic devices.
The electronic structure of bilayer graphene is investigated from a resonant Raman study using different laser excitation energies. The values of the parameters of the Slonczewski-Weiss-McClure model for graphite are measured experimentally and some of them differ significantly from those reported previously for graphite, specially that associated with the difference of the effective mass of electrons and holes. The splitting of the two TO phonon branches in bilayer graphene is also obtained from the experimental data. Our results have implications for bilayer graphene electronic devices.
Raman spectroscopy is a powerful tool for characterizing the local properties of graphene. Here, we introduce a method for evaluating unknown strain configurations and simultaneous doping. It relies on separating the effects of hydrostatic strain (peak shift) and shear strain (peak splitting) on the Raman spectrum of graphene. The peak shifts from hydrostatic strain and doping are separated with a correlation analysis of the 2D and G frequencies. This enables us to obtain the local hydrostatic strain, shear strain and doping without any assumption on the strain configuration prior to the analysis. We demonstrate our approach for two model cases: Graphene under uniaxial stress on a PMMA substrate and graphene suspended on nanostructures that induce an unknown strain configuration. We measured $omega_mathrm{2D}/omega_mathrm{G} = 2.21 pm 0.05$ for pure hydrostatic strain. Raman scattering with circular corotating polarization is ideal for analyzing strain and doping, especially for weak strain when the peak splitting by shear strain cannot be resolved.