Ambient condition laser writing of graphene structures on polycrystalline SiC thin film deposited on Si wafer

Abstract

We report laser induced local conversion of polycrystalline SiC thin-films grown on Si wafers into multi-layer graphene, a process compatible with the Si based microelectronic technologies. The conversion can be achieved using a 532 nm CW laser with as little as 10 mW power, yielding ∼1 μm graphene discs without any mask. The conversion conditions are found to vary with the crystallinity of the film. More interestingly, the internal structure of the graphene disc, probed by Raman imaging, can be tuned with varying the film and illumination parameters, resembling either the fundamental or doughnut mode of a laser beam.