Synthesis of graphene-like carbon film on SiC substrate

Abstract

Carbon film is widely used in many fields due to its excellent electronic, mechanical, and chemical properties. In this work, a free-standing graphene-like carbon film was synthesized on SiC substrate by a CVD process with ethylene as the major carbon source. The carbon film can be easily exfoliated from the substrate completely without any residuum. Intensity of the 2D peak of graphene is strong, while the feature peaks of SiC is not observed in the Raman spectra. Meanwhile, no shift of the feature peaks was found in the Raman spectra for the samples with different growth time. Results show that the carbon film is formed by the carbon atoms which come from the decomposition of ethylene rather than the thermal sublimation of SiC substrate. Intensity ratio of 2D to G peak increases with carbon film thickness reduces, which means that few layers of graphene can be synthesized by reducing the thickness of the carbon film. Besides, the sheet resistivity of the sample is as low as 40 Ω/sq. The excellent electrical conductivity of such carbon film can be useful in some special field in the future, such as electricity and energy.