Graphene: The Removal of Single Layers from Multi‐layer Graphene by Low‐Energy Electron Stimulation (Small 7/2012)

Abstract

The cover image illustrates the mechanism of removing single atomic layers from exfoliated multi-layer graphenes using electrons attracted from a cold remote He plasma. The electron-induced stimulation of basal plane carbon atoms followed by their dissociation results in the evenly distributed removal of carbon atoms, resulting in thinning. Blue, pink, and red spheres indicate carbon atoms from the bottom three atomic layers while yellow spheres indicate incident electrons originating from the plasma. Left and right columns correspond to false-color AFM images and their virtual atomic representations, respectively. This scalable process of reducing the number of layers for multi-layer graphenes may have significant applications for device fabrication processes where the thickness is critical–such as transparent conducting windows. For more information please read the Full Paper entitled “The Removal of Single Layers from Multi-layer Graphene by Low-Energy Electron Stimulation” by J. D. Jones, R. K. Shah, G. F. Verbeck, and J. M. Perez,* beginning on page 1066. The authors are grateful to Philip Ecton for his contribution to this cover image.