No Arabic abstract
Graphene is generally considered to be a strong candidate to succeed silicon as an electronic material. However, to date, it actually has not yet demonstrated capabilities that exceed standard semiconducting materials. Currently demonstrated viable graphene devices are essentially limited to micron size ultrahigh frequency analog field effect transistors and quantum Hall effect devices for metrology. Nanoscopically patterned graphene tends to have disordered edges that severely reduce mobilities thereby obviating its advantage over other materials. Here we show that graphene grown on structured silicon carbide surfaces overcomes the edge roughness and promises to provide an inroad into nanoscale patterning of graphene. We show that high quality ribbons and rings can be made using this technique. We also report on progress towards high mobility graphene monolayers on silicon carbide for device applications.
Structured growth of high quality graphene is necessary for technological development of carbon based electronics. Specifically, control of the bunching and placement of surface steps under epitaxial graphene on SiC is an important consideration for graphene device production. We demonstrate lithographically patterned evaporated amorphous carbon corrals as a method to pin SiC surface steps. Evaporated amorphous carbon is an ideal step-flow barrier on SiC due to its chemical compatibility with graphene growth and its structural stability at high temperatures, as well as its patternability. The amorphous carbon is deposited in vacuum on SiC prior to graphene growth. In the graphene furnace at temperatures above 1200$^circ$C, mobile SiC steps accumulate at these amorphous carbon barriers, forming an aligned step free region for graphene growth at temperatures above 1330$^circ$C. AFM imaging and Raman spectroscopy support the formation of quality step-free graphene sheets grown on SiC with the step morphology aligned to the carbon grid.
In this thesis we present a kinetic Monte Carlo model for the description of epitaxial graphene growth. Experimental results suggest a growth mechanism by which clusters of 5 carbon atoms are an intermediate species necessary for nucleation and island growth. This model is proposed by experimentally studying the velocity of growth of islands which is a highly nonlinear function of adatom concentration. In our simulation we incorporate this intermediate species and show that it can explain all other experimental observations: the temperature dependence of the adatom nucleation density, the equilibrium adatom density and the temperature dependence of the equilibrium island density. All these processes are described only by the kinematics of the system.
Epitaxial graphene grown on SiC by the confinement controlled sublimation method is reviewed, with an emphasis on multilayer and monolayer epitaxial graphene on the carbon face of 4H-SiC and on directed and selectively grown structures under growth-arresting or growth-enhancing masks. Recent developments in the growth of templated graphene nanostructures are also presented, as exemplified by tens of micron long very well confined and isolated 20-40nm wide graphene ribbons. Scheme for large scale integration of ribbon arrays with Si wafer is also presented.
Graphene multilayers are grown epitaxially on single crystal silicon carbide. This system is composed of several graphene layers of which the first layer is electron doped due to the built-in electric field and the other layers are essentially undoped. Unlike graphite the charge carriers show Dirac particle properties (i.e. an anomalous Berrys phase, weak anti-localization and square root field dependence of the Landau level energies). Epitaxial graphene shows quasi-ballistic transport and long coherence lengths; properties which may persists above cryogenic temperatures. Paradoxically, in contrast to exfoliated graphene, the quantum Hall effect is not observed in high mobility epitaxial graphene. It appears that the effect is suppressed due to absence of localized states in the bulk of the material.Epitaxial graphene can be patterned using standard lithography methods and characterized using a wide array of techniques. These favorable features indicate that interconnected room temperature ballistic devices may be feasible for low dissipation high-speed nanoelectronics.
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.