Surface-enhanced Raman scattering of suspended monolayer graphene

Cheng-Wen Huang,Fu-Yu Shih,Hsiang-Chen Chui,Wei-Hua Wang,Chen-Han Huang,Chih-Yi Liu,Hsing-Ying Lin,Bing-Jie Lin

doi:10.1186/1556-276x-8-480

Abstract

The interactions between phonons and electrons induced by the dopants or the substrate of graphene in spectroscopic investigation reveal a rich source of interesting physics. Raman spectra and surface-enhanced Raman spectra of supported and suspended monolayer graphenes were measured and analyzed systemically with different approaches. The weak Raman signals are greatly enhanced by the ability of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy which has attracted considerable interests. The technique is regarded as wonderful and useful tool, but the dopants that are produced by depositing metallic nanoparticles may affect the electron scattering processes of graphene. Therefore, the doping and substrate influences on graphene are also important issues to be investigated. In this work, the peak positions of G peak and 2D peak, the I2D/IG ratios, and enhancements of G and 2D bands with suspended and supported graphene flakes were measured and analyzed. The peak shifts of G and 2D bands between the Raman and SERS signals demonstrate the doping effect induced by silver nanoparticles by n-doping. The I2D/IG ratio can provide a more sensitive method to carry out the doping effect on the graphene surface than the peak shifts of G and 2D bands. The enhancements of 2D band of suspended and supported graphenes reached 138, and those of G band reached at least 169. Their good enhancements are helpful to measure the optical properties of graphene. The different substrates that covered the graphene surface with doping effect are more sensitive to the enhancements of G band with respect to 2D band. It provides us a new method to distinguish the substrate and doping effect on graphene. PACS78.67.Wj (optical properties of graphene); 74.25.nd (Raman and optical spectroscopy); 63.22.Rc (phonons in graphene)

Highlights

Graphene, the thinnest sp[2] allotrope of carbon arranged in a honeycomb lattice, has attracted many attentions because its unique and novel electrical and optical properties [1-3]
The images of silver nanoparticles that covered suspended and supported graphenes were obtained by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and are shown in Figure 2a, b, c
It can be seen that the silver nanoparticles deposited on the suspended and supported graphenes are in indistinguishable shape

Summary

Introduction

The thinnest sp[2] allotrope of carbon arranged in a honeycomb lattice, has attracted many attentions because its unique and novel electrical and optical properties [1-3]. The performances of dopants, the effects of defects in graphene, and the phonon modes of suspended and supported graphenes vary but can be well understood using Raman spectroscopy [10-12]. Raman spectroscopy and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) have been extensively applied monolayer graphene by the optical microscopy and Raman spectroscopy because of the color contrast, various bandwidth, and peak position of 2D band with different graphene layers [27,28]. The Raman and SERS signals of suspended and supported graphenes can be measured and analyzed systematically. The peak positions of G and 2D bands, the I2D/IG ratio, and enhancements of G and 2D bands were obtained, respectively. The peak shift of G and 2D bands and the I2D/IG ratio are useful to demonstrate the dopants and substrate effects on the graphene. This paper provides a new approach to investigate the substrate and doping effect on graphene

Methods

Results

Conclusion