Microscale surface potential gradient disturbances observed in bilayer graphene

Abstract

Van der Waals mono- and heterostructures have received great attention in recent years due to their new physics and electronic properties. Several novel device structures have been developed based on their properties, including tunnelling transistors, light emitting diodes and barristors. However, the construction of such structures usually involves transfer techniques which could induce damage and modify the electronic properties of the structures and degrade device performance. Here we show that a multi-step transfer process for graphene may disturb its transport properties at microscale. Bilayer graphene was transferred, using PMMA as supporting material, onto an Al2O3/Si substrate with pre-patterned chromium-palladium electrodes. Using scanning tunnelling potentiometry, we observed that the local potential gradient (and resulting current flow) significantly changed compared with the potential gradient arising from the electrodes’ position and biasing. This could be attributed to local material ad-layers, unspecified contact or additives present between sub-layers. This finding represents an important step in understanding the effect of transfer techniques on the quality of multilayer van der Waals mono- and heterostructures.