Abstract
At a single atom thick, it is challenging to distinguish graphene from its substrate using conventional techniques. In this paper we show that friction force microscopy (FFM) is a simple and quick technique for identifying graphene on a range of samples, from growth substrates to rough insulators. We show that FFM is particularly effective for characterizing graphene grown on copper where it can correlate the graphene growth to the three-dimensional surface topography. Atomic lattice stick–slip friction is readily resolved and enables the crystallographic orientation of the graphene to be mapped nondestructively, reproducibly and at high resolution. We expect FFM to be similarly effective for studying graphene growth on other metal/locally crystalline substrates, including SiC, and for studying growth of other two-dimensional materials such as molybdenum disulfide and hexagonal boron nitride.
Highlights
Graphene is rapidly evolving from a material with fascinating fundamental properties to one with a wide range of applications
In this work we show that friction force microscopy (FFM) is a simple technique for identifying graphene even on rough insulating samples
The low coefficient of friction (μ) for graphene has been well-documented, with previous reports showing that μ decreases from monolayer to bilayer to few-layer graphene [18,19,20]; along with the direct comparison between FFM and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), this allows the low friction regions to be unambiguously associated with graphene, whilst the higher the cantilever onto a position sensitive photodetector (PSD) with four quadrants
Summary
Graphene is rapidly evolving from a material with fascinating fundamental properties to one with a wide range of applications. These applications involve integrating graphene onto, or into, other materials, such as dielectrics for electronic applications or polymers for functional composites. The range of applications is mirrored by the range of synthesis techniques. The original mechanical exfoliation has been supplemented by more scalable techniques such as sublimation of SiC, growth on transition metals, and liquid or chemical exfoliation [1].
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