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Yang D, Ma F, Bian X, Xia Q, Xu K, Hu T. The growth of epitaxial graphene on SiC and its metal intercalation: a review. JOURNAL OF PHYSICS. CONDENSED MATTER : AN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS JOURNAL 2024; 36:173003. [PMID: 38237180 DOI: 10.1088/1361-648x/ad201a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2023] [Accepted: 01/18/2024] [Indexed: 02/02/2024]
Abstract
High-quality epitaxial graphene (EG) on SiC is crucial to high-performance electronic devices due to the good compatibility with Si-based semiconductor technology. Metal intercalation has been considered as a basic technology to modify EG on SiC. In the past ten years, there have been extensive research activities on the structural evolution during EG fabrication, characterization of the atomic structure and electronic states of EG, optimization of the fabrication process, as well as modification of EG by metal intercalation. In this perspective, the developments and breakthroughs in recent years are summarized and future expectations are discussed. A good understanding of the growth mechanism of EG and subsequent metal intercalation effects is fundamentally important.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dong Yang
- Key Laboratory of Tropical Translational Medicine of Ministry of Education, School of Tropical Medicine and The Second Affiliated Hospital, Hainan Medical University, Haikou, Hainan 571199, People's Republic of China
- Department of Physics, School of Biomedical Information and Engineering, Hainan Medical University, Haikou, Hainan 571199, People's Republic of China
| | - Fei Ma
- State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, Shaanxi, People's Republic of China
| | - Xianglong Bian
- Key Laboratory of Tropical Translational Medicine of Ministry of Education, School of Tropical Medicine and The Second Affiliated Hospital, Hainan Medical University, Haikou, Hainan 571199, People's Republic of China
| | - Qianfeng Xia
- Key Laboratory of Tropical Translational Medicine of Ministry of Education, School of Tropical Medicine and The Second Affiliated Hospital, Hainan Medical University, Haikou, Hainan 571199, People's Republic of China
| | - Kewei Xu
- State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, Shaanxi, People's Republic of China
| | - Tingwei Hu
- Key Laboratory of Tropical Translational Medicine of Ministry of Education, School of Tropical Medicine and The Second Affiliated Hospital, Hainan Medical University, Haikou, Hainan 571199, People's Republic of China
- State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, Shaanxi, People's Republic of China
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Duan Y, Xu W, Kong W, Wang J, Zhang J, Yang Z, Cai Q. Modification on Flower Defects and Electronic Properties of Epitaxial Graphene by Erbium. ACS OMEGA 2023; 8:37600-37609. [PMID: 37841144 PMCID: PMC10568997 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.3c06523] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2023] [Accepted: 09/15/2023] [Indexed: 10/17/2023]
Abstract
Manipulating the topological defects and electronic properties of graphene has been a subject of great interest. In this work, we have investigated the influence of Er predeposition on flower defects and electronic band structures of epitaxial graphene on SiC. It is shown that Er atoms grown on the SiC substrate actually work as an activator to induce flower defect formation with a density of 1.52 × 1012 cm-2 during the graphitization process when the Er coverage is 1.6 ML, about 5 times as much as that of pristine graphene. First-principles calculations demonstrate that Er greatly decreases the formation energy of the flower defect. We have discussed Er promoting effects on flower defect formation as well as its formation mechanism. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) have been utilized to reveal the Er doping effect and its modification to electronic structures of graphene. N-doping enhancement and band gap opening can be observed by using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). With Er coverage increasing from 0 to 1.6 ML, the Dirac point energy decreases from -0.34 to -0.37 eV and the band gap gradually increases from 320 to 360 meV. The opening of the band gap is attributed to the synergistic effect of substitution doping of Er atoms and high-density flower defects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yong Duan
- State Key Laboratory of Surface
Physics and Department of Physics, Fudan
University, Shanghai 200433, People’s
Republic of China
| | - Wenting Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Surface
Physics and Department of Physics, Fudan
University, Shanghai 200433, People’s
Republic of China
| | - Wenxia Kong
- State Key Laboratory of Surface
Physics and Department of Physics, Fudan
University, Shanghai 200433, People’s
Republic of China
| | - Jianxin Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Surface
Physics and Department of Physics, Fudan
University, Shanghai 200433, People’s
Republic of China
| | - Jinzhe Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Surface
Physics and Department of Physics, Fudan
University, Shanghai 200433, People’s
Republic of China
| | - Zhongqin Yang
- State Key Laboratory of Surface
Physics and Department of Physics, Fudan
University, Shanghai 200433, People’s
Republic of China
| | - Qun Cai
- State Key Laboratory of Surface
Physics and Department of Physics, Fudan
University, Shanghai 200433, People’s
Republic of China
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Abstract
Catalytic cutting by metal particles under an atmosphere environment is a promising method for patterning graphene. Here, long straight micro-trenches are produced by the sliding of metal particles (Ag and In) on epitaxial graphene (EG) substrate under the ultra-high vacuum (UHV) annealing. The morphology and orientation relationship of the micro-trenches are observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the damage effect is confirmed by Raman scattering. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) are further adopted to atomically characterize the sliding behavior of metal particles, which resembles a similar etching method and can be used to make graphene nano-trenches. The study provides us with more understanding about the mutual effects between metals on EG, which hopes to pave the way for the applications of graphene-based devices.
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Liu X, Fang Q, Hu T, Ma D, Zhang X, Liu S, Ma F, Xu K. Thickness dependent Raman spectra and interfacial interaction between Ag and epitaxial graphene on 6H-SiC(0001). Phys Chem Chem Phys 2018; 20:5964-5974. [PMID: 29424375 DOI: 10.1039/c7cp07338k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
Graphene as the thinnest material has an extremely large specific surface area, and thus the physical properties of graphene based devices should be sensitively dependent on the contacted metals. Moreover, the interfacial interaction between graphene and metals is complicated and it is difficult to probe. In this paper, epitaxial graphene is prepared by thermal decomposition of 6H-SiC(0001), and then Ag is deposited on it. It is found that the morphology and distribution of Ag particles on graphene domains are independent of the graphene thickness. The Ag particles induce the surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) effect and the doping effect in epitaxial graphene. The enhancement factor of SERS as well as the splitting of the G band and the shift of the 2D band decreases with increasing graphene thickness, which can be ascribed to the weakened interaction between Ag and EG. This is confirmed by the charge transfer between the Ag atom and epitaxial graphene on 6H-SiC predicted by first-principles calculations. The results are helpful to the design and development of graphene-based composites and devices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiangtai Liu
- State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, Shaanxi, China.
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Wang L, Wang Q, Huang J, Li WQ, Chen GH, Yang Y. Interface and interaction of graphene layers on SiC(0001[combining macron]) covered with TiC(111) intercalation. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2017; 19:26765-26775. [PMID: 28948251 DOI: 10.1039/c7cp04443g] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
It is important to understand the interface and interaction between the graphene layer, titanium carbide [TiC(111)] interlayer, and silicon carbide [SiC(0001[combining macron])] substrates in epitaxial growth of graphene on silicon carbide (SiC) substrates. In this study, the fully relaxed interfaces which consist of up to three layers of TiC(111) coatings on the SiC(0001[combining macron]) as well as the graphene layers interactions with these TiC(111)/SiC(0001[combining macron]) were systematically studied using the density functional theory-D2 (DFT-D2) method. The results showed that the two layers of TiC(111) coating with the C/C-terminated interfaces were thermodynamically more favorable than one or three layers of TiC(111) on the SiC(0001[combining macron]). Furthermore, the bonding of the Ti-hollow-site stacked interfaces would be a stronger link than that of the Ti-Fcc-site stacked interfaces. However, the formation of the C/Ti/C and Ti/C interfaces implied that the first upper carbon layer can be formed on TiC(111)/SiC(0001[combining macron]) using the decomposition of the weaker Ti-C and C-Si interfacial bonds. When growing graphene layers on these TiC(111)/SiC(0001[combining macron]) substrates, the results showed that the interaction energy depended not only on the thickness of the TiC(111) interlayer, but also on the number of graphene layers. Bilayer graphene on the two layer thick TiC(111)/SiC(0001[combining macron]) was thermodynamically more favorable than a monolayer or trilayer graphene on these TiC(111)/SiC(0001[combining macron]) substrates. The adsorption energies of the bottom graphene layers with the TiC(111)/SiC(0001[combining macron]) substrates increased with the decrease of the interface vertical distance. The interaction energies between the bottom, second and third layers of graphene on the TiC(111)/SiC(0001[combining macron]) were significantly higher than that of the freestanding graphene layers. All of these findings provided insight into the growth of epitaxial graphene on TiC(111)/SiC(0001[combining macron]) substrates and the design of graphene/TiC/SiC-based electronic devices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lu Wang
- School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Institute of Advanced Synthesis (IAS), Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, P. R. China.
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Shan X, Wang Q, Bian X, Li WQ, Chen GH, Zhu H. Graphene layers on Si-face and C-face surfaces and interaction with Si and C atoms in layer controlled graphene growth on SiC substrates. RSC Adv 2015. [DOI: 10.1039/c5ra12596k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
It is important to understand the interface and interaction between graphene layers and SiC surfaces as well as the interaction of key intermediate Si and C atoms with these surfaces and interfaces in epitaxial graphene growth on SiC substrates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoye Shan
- Department of Applied Chemistry
- College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering
- Nanjing Tech University
- Nanjing 211816
- P. R. China
| | - Qiang Wang
- Department of Applied Chemistry
- College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering
- Nanjing Tech University
- Nanjing 211816
- P. R. China
| | - Xin Bian
- Department of Applied Chemistry
- College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering
- Nanjing Tech University
- Nanjing 211816
- P. R. China
| | - Wei-qi Li
- Department of Physics
- Harbin Institute of Technology
- Harbin 150001
- P. R. China
| | - Guang-hui Chen
- Department of Chemistry
- Shantou University
- Shantou 515063
- P. R. China
| | - Hongjun Zhu
- Department of Applied Chemistry
- College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering
- Nanjing Tech University
- Nanjing 211816
- P. R. China
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