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 g
raphene 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.
The thermoelectric response of high mobility single layer epitaxial graphene on silicon carbide substrates as a function of temperature and magnetic field have been investigated. For the temperature dependence of the thermopower, a strong deviation f
rom the Mott relation has been observed even when the carrier density is high, which reflects the importance of the screening effect. In the quantum Hall regime, the amplitude of the thermopower peaks is lower than a quantum value predicted by theories, despite the high mobility of the sample. A systematic reduction of the amplitude with decreasing temperature suggests that the suppression of the thermopower is intrinsic to Dirac electrons in graphene.
After the pioneering investigations into graphene-based electronics at Georgia Tech (GT), great strides have been made developing epitaxial graphene on silicon carbide (EG) as a new electronic material. EG has not only demonstrated its potential for
large scale applications, it also has become an invaluable material for fundamental two-dimensional electron gas physics showing that only EG is on route to define future graphene science. It was long known that graphene mono and multilayers grow on SiC crystals at high temperatures in ultra-high vacuum. At these temperatures, silicon sublimes from the surface and the carbon rich surface layer transforms to graphene. However the quality of the graphene produced in ultrahigh vacuum is poor due to the high sublimation rates at relatively low temperatures. The GT team developed growth methods involving encapsulating the SiC crystals in graphite enclosures, thereby sequestering the evaporated silicon and bringing growth process closer to equilibrium. In this confinement controlled sublimation (CCS) process, very high quality graphene is grown on both polar faces of the SiC crystals. Since 2003, over 50 publications used CCS grown graphene, where it is known as the furnace grown graphene. Graphene multilayers grown on the carbon-terminated face of SiC, using the CCS method, were shown to consist of decoupled high mobility graphene layers. The CCS method is now applied on structured silicon carbide surfaces to produce high mobility nano-patterned graphene structures thereby demonstrating that EG is a viable contender for next-generation electronics. Here we present the CCS method and demonstrate several of epitaxial graphenes outstanding properties and applications.
The quantum Hall effect, with a Berrys phase of $pi$ is demonstrated here on a single graphene layer grown on the C-face of 4H silicon carbide. The mobility is $sim$ 20,000 cm$^2$/V$cdot$s at 4 K and ~15,000 cm$^2$/V$cdot$s at 300 K despite contamina
tion and substrate steps. This is comparable to the best exfoliated graphene flakes on SiO$_2$ and an order of magnitude larger than Si-face epitaxial graphene monolayers. These and other properties indicate that C-face epitaxial graphene is a viable platform for graphene-based electronics.
The observation of the anomalous quantum Hall effect in exfoliated graphene flakes triggered an explosion of interest in graphene. It was however not observed in high quality epitaxial graphene multilayers grown on silicon carbide substrates. The qua
ntum Hall effect is shown on epitaxial graphene monolayers that were deliberately grown over substrate steps and subjected to harsh processing procedures, demonstrating the robustness of the epitaxial graphene monolayers and the immunity of their transport properties to temperature, contamination and substrate imperfections. The mobility of the monolayer C-face sample is 19,000 cm^2/Vs. This is an important step towards the realization of epitaxial graphene based electronics.
