Improvement of graphene field-effect transistors by hexamethyldisilazane surface treatment

Abstract

We report the improvement of the electrical characteristics of graphene field-effect transistors (FETs) by hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) treatment. Both electron and hole field-effect mobilities are increased by 1.5 × –2×, accompanied by effective residual carrier concentration reduction. Dirac point also moves closer to zero Volt. Time evolution of mobility data shows that mobility improvement saturates after a few hours of HMDS treatment. Temperature-dependent transport measurements show small mobility variation between 77 K and room temperature (295 K) before HMDS application. But mobility at 77 K is almost 2 times higher than mobility at 295 K after HMDS application, indicating reduced carrier scattering. Performance improvement is also observed for FETs made on hydrophobic substrate—an HMDS-graphene-HMDS sandwich structure. Raman spectroscopic analysis shows that G peak width is increased, G peak position is down shifted, and intensity ratio between 2D and G peaks is increased after HMDS application. We attribute the improvements in electronic transport mainly to enhanced screening and mitigation of adsorbed impurities from graphene surface upon HMDS treatment.