Highly enhanced thermal conductance across metal/graphene/SiO2 interface by ion bombardment

Abstract

Low thermal conductance (G) across metal/graphene interfaces presents an enormous challenge for the heat dissipation in graphene-based devices. In this paper, the heat conduction across Al/graphene/SiO2 interface at different doses of gallium (Ga) ion bombardment are explored. It is found that G of Al/graphene/SiO2 interface gradually rises with increasing dose until a peak value is obtained at a dose of 6.88 × 1012 ions/cm2. The maximum enhancement in G of Al/ion-bombarded graphene/SiO2 interface is measured to be almost 6 times as much as that of Al/pristine graphene/SiO2 interface. Such a large enhancement in G is ascribed to the reconstruction of C/O bonds on the ion-bombarded graphene surface, which intensifies the adsorption interaction between Al film and ion-bombarded graphene. This paper provides a facile approach for tailoring the thermal transport cross metal/graphene interfaces, which ultimately benefits the effective thermal management of graphene-based devices.