Abstract
Material growth on a dangling-bond-free interface such as graphene is a challenging technological task, which usually requires additional surface pre-treatment steps (functionalization, seed layer formation) to provide enough reactive sites. Being one of the most promising and adaptable graphene-family materials, epitaxial graphene on SiC, due to its internal features (substrate-induced n-doping, compressive strain, terrace-stepped morphology, bilayer graphene nano-inclusions), may provide pre-conditions for the enhanced binding affinity of environmental species, precursor molecules, and metal atoms on the topmost graphene layer. It makes it possible to use untreated pristine epitaxial graphene as a versatile platform for the deposition of metals and insulators. This mini-review encompasses relevant aspects of magnetron sputtering and electrodeposition of selected metals (Au, Ag, Pb, Hg, Cu, Li) and atomic layer deposition of insulating Al2O3 layers on epitaxial graphene on 4H-SiC, focusing on understanding growth mechanisms. Special deliberation has been given to the effect of the deposited materials on the epitaxial graphene quality. The generalization of the experimental and theoretical results presented here is hopefully an important step towards new electronic devices (chemiresistors, Schottky diodes, field-effect transistors) for environmental sensing, nano-plasmonics, and biomedical applications.
Highlights
Raman ing the early stages of the electrodeposition process, the epitaxial graphene surface is covspectroscopy measurements will be performed in a future better understand ered with separated nuclei with discrete diffusion zones, study whichtotend to merge up tothe the effect of
We have summarized recent results on the deposition of metals and insulators on epitaxial graphene on 4H-SiC
We presented a discussion related to the effect of the grown metal layers on the Raman spectra of epitaxial graphene
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The compressive strain can significantly influence the pability of graphene with respect to environmental species and individual atoms/moleadsorption capability of graphene with respect to environmental species and individual cules [38,39], while electron doping is regarded as a viable means to increase the reactivity atoms/molecules [38,39], while electron doping is regarded as a viable means to increase toward oxygen [40] This creates good prerequisites only for boosting innovative sensthe reactivity toward oxygen [40]. More information about the intrinsic properties of the epitaxial graphene on SiC extracted from the analysis of the Raman mapping data [42]. Fat band structure (calculated in the frames of the current work) for monolayer epitaxial graphene on 4H-SiC, including contributions of key orbitals to the bands. The Fermi level to 0is graphene onto4H-SiC, including contributions of key orbitals the bands. 8 × ×8 8slabs (free-standing graphene and epitaxial graphene on SiC, respectively) at vdW/BH/DZP level of DFT by SIESTA code.
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