Study of properties and development of sensors based on graphene films grown on SiC (0001) by thermal destruction method

A A Lebedev,V Y Davydov,I A Eliseyev,A G Rybkin,V S Levitskii,A N Smirnov,D Y Usachov,S P Lebedev,M S Dunaevskiy,Yu N Makarov,S N Novikov,P A Alekseev

doi:10.1088/1742-6596/951/1/012007

Abstract

The structural, chemical, and electronic properties of epitaxial graphene films grown by thermal decomposition of the Si-face of a semi-insulating 6H-SiC substrate in an argon environment are studied by Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and angle-resolved photoemission. It was demonstrated the possibility of fabrication of the gas and biosensors that is based on grown graphene films. The gas sensors are sufficiently sensitive to NO2 at low concentrations. The biosensor operation was checked using an immunochemical system comprising fluorescein dye and monoclonal anti fluorescein antibodies. The sensor detects fluorescein concentration on a level of 1–10 ng/mL and bovine serum albumin– fluorescein conjugate on a level of 1–5 ng/mL. The proposed device has good prospects for use for early diagnostics of various diseases.

Highlights

Graphene is presently the object of extensive studies due to its unique physical properties and huge potential in the development of new-generation devices that implement the principles of ballistic electronics, spintronics, optoelectronics, nanoplasmonics, and other promising alternatives to conventional semiconductor electronics [1]
The structural, chemical, and electronic properties of epitaxial graphene films grown by thermal decomposition of the Si-face of a semi-insulating 6H-silicon carbide (SiC) substrate in an argon environment are studied by Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and angleresolved photoemission
The results of an integrated study related the structural, chemical, and electronic characteristics of graphene films grown by the method of thermal decomposition of the SiC surface to the technological growth modes

Summary

Introduction

Graphene (single layer of graphite) is presently the object of extensive studies due to its unique physical properties and huge potential in the development of new-generation devices that implement the principles of ballistic electronics, spintronics, optoelectronics, nanoplasmonics, and other promising alternatives to conventional semiconductor electronics [1]. A great advantage of the given technology is that there is no need to transfer the resulting film onto an insulator substrate, as this is done, e.g., in the synthesis of graphene on metals This growth technique can grow graphene on the surface of commercial SiC substrates with a diameter of up to 4 in., the industrial manufacture of which has been mastered. Together with performing local diagnostics, we analyzed large sample areas (10 × 10 to 30 × 30 μm), with the subsequent plotting of Raman maps of the spectral line parameters This procedure made it possible to carry out one of the main tasks of the present study, which consisted in assessing the uniformity of the structural characteristics over the sample area. Results that are typical of samples grown in the final stage of optimization of the technological parameters are presented

Graphen films structural characterization

Findings

Conclusions