Abstract
Catalytic cutting by metal particles under an atmosphere environment is a promising method for patterning graphene. Here, long straight micro-trenches are produced by the sliding of metal particles (Ag and In) on epitaxial graphene (EG) substrate under the ultra-high vacuum (UHV) annealing. The morphology and orientation relationship of the micro-trenches are observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the damage effect is confirmed by Raman scattering. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) are further adopted to atomically characterize the sliding behavior of metal particles, which resembles a similar etching method and can be used to make graphene nano-trenches. The study provides us with more understanding about the mutual effects between metals on EG, which hopes to pave the way for the applications of graphene-based devices.
Highlights
Due to the unique properties and practical potential applications [1,2,3], research involving graphene has become a fast developing field since its discovery in 2004 [4]
Catalystic etching by metal particles, another top-down cutting method, is much more simple and direct than lithography in the fabrication process [8,9]
The formation of trenches is only motivated by sliding of Ag particles during high vacuum annealing
Summary
Due to the unique properties and practical potential applications [1,2,3], research involving graphene has become a fast developing field since its discovery in 2004 [4]. The patterning of graphene sheets is necessary as it is a fundamental step for the device applications in integrated circuits. The method of top-down cutting exhibits better scalability and controllability on size, shape and position during patterning [7]. Catalystic etching by metal particles, another top-down cutting method, is much more simple and direct than lithography in the fabrication process [8,9]. Various metal nano-particles, such as silver (Ag), nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co), platinum (Pt) and iron (Fe), can be used as catalysts to etch graphene sheets or highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) at hydrogen (H2 ) or oxygen (O2 ) annealing environment [10,11,12,13,14]. The mechanism of catalysict etching has been discussed through experiments, and further demonstrated by computational simulations [15,16]
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