A clear gate voltage tunable weak antilocalization and a giant magnetoresistance of 400 percent are observed at 1.9 K in single layer graphene with an out-of-plane field. A large magnetoresistance value of 275 percent is obtained even at room tempera
ture implying potential applications of graphene in magnetic sensors. Both the weak antilocalization and giant magnetoresistance persists far away from the charge neutrality point in contrast to previous reports, and both effects are originated from charged impurities. Interestingly, the signatures of Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations and the quantum Hall effect are also observed for the same sample.
A stochastic nonlinear electrical characteristic of graphene is reported. Abrupt current changes are observed from voltage sweeps between the source and drain with an on/off ratio up to 10^(3). It is found that graphene channel experience the topolog
ical change. Active radicals in an uneven graphene channel cause local changes of electrostatic potential. Simulation results based on the self-trapped electron and hole mechanism account well for the experimental data. Our findings illustrate an important issue of reliable electron transports and help for the understanding of transport properties in graphene devices.
Deposition of various materials onto graphene without causing any disorder is highly desirable for graphene applications. Especially, sputtering is a versatile technique to deposit various metals and insulators for spintronics, and indium tin oxide t
o make transparent devices. However, the sputtering process causes damage to graphene because of high energy sputtered atoms. By flipping the substrate and using a high Ar pressure, we demonstrate that the level of damage to graphene can be reduced or eliminated in dc, rf, and reactive sputtering processes.
Tunability of the surface plasmon resonance wavelength is demonstrated by varying the thickness of Al2O3 spacer layer inserted between the graphene and nanoparticles. By varying the spacer layer thickness from 0.3 to 1.8 nm, the resonance wavelength
is shifted from 583 to 566 nm. The shift is due to a change in the electromagnetic field coupling strength between the localized surface plasmons excited in the gold nanoparticles and a single layer graphene film. In contrast, when the graphene film is absent from the system, no noticeable shift in the resonance wavelength is observed upon varying the spacer thickness.
To determine the friction coefficient of graphene, micro-scale scratch tests are conducted on exfoliated and epitaxial graphene at ambient conditions. The experimental results show that the monolayer, bilayer, and trilayer graphene all yield friction
coefficients of approximately 0.03. The friction coefficient of pristine graphene is less than that of disordered graphene, which is treated by oxygen plasma. Ramping force scratch tests are performed on graphene with various numbers of layers to determine the normal load required for the probe to penetrate graphene. A very low friction coefficient and also its high pressure resistance make graphene a promising material for antiwear coatings.
Reproducible current hysteresis is observed in graphene with a back gate structure in a two-terminal configuration. By applying a back gate bias to tune the Fermi level, an opposite sequence of switching with the different charge carriers, holes and
electrons, is found. The charging and discharging effect is proposed to explain this ambipolar bistable hysteretic switching. To confirm this hypothesis, one-level transport model simulations including charging effect are performed and the results are consistent with our experimental data. Methods of improving the ON/OFF ratio of graphene resistive switching are suggested.
