Premium
Polymer‐Free Patterning of Graphene at Sub‐10‐nm Scale by Low‐Energy Repetitive Electron Beam
Author(s) -
Lan YannWen,
Chang WenHao,
Xiao BoTang,
Liang BoWei,
Chen JyunHong,
Jiang Peihsun,
Li LainJong,
Su YaWen,
Zhong YuanLiang,
Chen ChiiDong
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.201401523
Subject(s) - graphene , materials science , polymer , graphene nanoribbons , nanotechnology , optoelectronics , cathode ray , annealing (glass) , graphene oxide paper , electron , composite material , physics , quantum mechanics
A polymer‐free technique for generating nanopatterns on both synthesized and exfoliated graphene sheets is proposed and demonstrated. A low‐energy (5–30 keV) scanning electron beam with variable repetition rates is used to etch suspended and unsuspended graphene sheets on designed locations. The patterning mechanisms involve a defect‐induced knockout process in the initial etching stage and a heat‐induced curling process in a later stage. Rough pattern edges appear due to inevitable stochastic knockout of carbon atoms or graphene structure imperfection and can be smoothed by thermal annealing. By using this technique, the minimum feature sizes achieved are about 5 nm for suspended and 7 nm for unsuspended graphene. This study demonstrates a polymer‐free direct nanopatterning approach for graphene.