No Arabic abstract
A detailed review of the literature for the last 5-10 years on epitaxial growth of graphene is presented. Both experimental and theoretical aspects related to growth on transition metals and on silicon carbide are thoroughly reviewed. Thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of growth on all these materials, where possible, are discussed. To make this text useful for a wider audience, a range of important experimental techniques that have been used over the last decade to grow (e.g. CVD, TPG and segregation) and characterize (STM, LEEM, etc.) graphene are reviewed, and a critical survey of the most important theoretical techniques is given. Finally, we critically discuss various unsolved problems related to growth and its mechanism which we believe require proper attention in future research.
The interaction of interfacial water with graphitic carbon at the atomic scale is studied as a function of the hydrophobicity of epitaxial graphene. High resolution X-ray reflectivity shows that the graphene-water contact angle is controlled by the average graphene thickness, due to the fraction of the film surface expressed as the epitaxial buffer layer whose contact angle (contact angle theta_c = 73{deg}) is substantially smaller than that of multilayer graphene (theta_c = 93{deg}). Classical and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations show that the reduced contact angle of the buffer layer is due to both its epitaxy with the SiC substrate and the presence of interfacial defects. This insight clarifies the relationship between interfacial water structure and hydrophobicity, in general, and suggests new routes to control interface properties of epitaxial graphene.
The growth process of single layer graphene with and without substrate is investigated using ab initio, finite temperature molecular dynamic calculations within density functional theory. An understanding of the epitaxial graphene growth mechanisms in the atomic level is provided by exploring the transient stages which occur at the growing edges of graphene. These stages are formation and collapse of large carbon rings together with the formation and healing of Stone-Wales like pentagon-heptagon defects. The activation barriers for the healing of these growth induced defects on various substrates are calculated using the climbing image nudge elastic band method and compared with that of the Stone-Wales defect. It is found that the healing of pentagon-heptagon defects occurring near the edge in the course of growth is much easier than that of Stone-Wales defect. The role of the substrate in the epitaxial growth and in the healing of defects are also investigated in detail, along with the effects of using carbon dimers as the building blocks of graphene growth.
An in vacuo thermal desorption process has been accomplished to form epitaxial graphene (EG) on 4H- and 6H-SiC substrates using a commercial chemical vapor deposition reactor. Correlation of growth conditions and the morphology and electrical properties of EG are described. Raman spectra of EG on Si-face samples were dominated by monolayer thickness. This approach was used to grow EG on 50 mm SiC wafers that were subsequently fabricated into field effect transistors with fmax of 14 GHz.
As a viable candidate for an all-carbon post-CMOS electronics revolution, epitaxial graphene has attracted significant attention. To realize its application potential, reliable methods for fabricating large-area single-crystalline graphene domains are required. A new way to synthesize high quality epitaxial graphene, namely face-to-face method, has been reported in this paper. The structure and morphologies of the samples are characterized by low-energy electron diffraction, atomic force microscopy, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The grown samples show better quality and larger length scales than samples grown through conventional thermal desorption. Moreover the graphene thickness can be easily controlled by changing annealing temperature.
Growth of epitaxial graphene on the C-face of SiC has been investigated. Using a confinement controlled sublimation (CCS) method, we have achieved well controlled growth and been able to observe propagation of uniform monolayer graphene. Surface patterns uncover two important aspects of the growth, i.e. carbon diffusion and stoichiometric requirement. Moreover, a new stepdown growth mode has been discovered. Via this mode, monolayer graphene domains can have an area of hundreds of square micrometers, while, most importantly, step bunching is avoided and the initial uniformly stepped SiC surface is preserved. The stepdown growth provides a possible route towards uniform epitaxial graphene in wafer size without compromising the initial flat surface morphology of SiC.