Fragmented graphene synthesized on a dielectric substrate for THz applications

Abstract

Fragmented multi-layered graphene films were directly synthesized via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on dielectric substrates with a pre-deposited copper catalyst. We demonstrate that the thickness of the sacrificial copper film, process temperature, and growth time essentially influence the integrity, quality, and disorder of the synthesized graphene. Atomic force microscopy and Kelvin probe force microscopy measurements revealed the presence of nano-agglomerates and charge puddles. The potential gradients measured over the sample surface confirmed that the deposited graphene film possessed a multilayered structure, which was modelled as an ensemble of randomly oriented conductive prolate ellipsoids. THz time domain spectroscopy measurements gave the ac conductivity of the graphene flakes and homogenized graphitic films as being around 1200 S cm−1 and 1000 S cm−1, respectively. Our approach offers a scalable fabrication of graphene structures composed of graphene flakes, which have effective conductivity sufficient for a wide variety of THz applications.