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Mess-Free Graphene Growth

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ITHACA, N.Y., Nov. 16, 2009 – Single layers of carbon atoms, called graphene sheets, are lightweight, strong, electrically semiconducting – and notoriously difficult and expensive to make.

Now, a Cornell research team has invented a simple way to make graphene electrical devices by growing the graphene directly onto a silicon wafer.

Graphene-Growth.jpg


A conceptual illustration of an array of graphene transistors having the thickness of one single carbon atom. (Image: Shivank Garg/Cornell)



Graphene has off-the-charts electrical properties and remarkable strength, despite its one-atom-thick sheets, so it often is hailed as potentially supplanting silicon in electronics. But making it in large quantities is a challenge, and scientists have turned to methods as crude as using Scotch tape to pull off a layer of graphene from graphite, the material found in pencil lead. Such a technique for producing graphene never would survive manufacturing, especially since it would create varying numbers of layers at random positions.

“You can imagine trying to peel a piece of shrink-wrap off a dish to put it on a new dish – it’s going to be messy,” said lead researcher Jiwoong Park, Cornell assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology.

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Inspired by previous work in which scientists grew graphene on copper foil, the team grew the graphene directly onto silicon wafers coated with a special evaporated copper film. They cut the graphene films into the desired shapes using such standard methods as photolithography, then removed the underlying copper with a chemical solution. What was left was a graphene film that draped down over the silicon wafer with little defect.

“Once the graphene is made on top of this wafer, you can apply any thin-film processing technique,” Park said.

The team now is experimenting with growing full-scale, 4-in. graphene wafers to further demonstrate the manufacturing potential of graphene-based electronics.

The paper’s first author is Mark P. Levendorf, a graduate student in chemistry, and co-authors are Carlos S. Ruiz-Vargas, a graduate student in applied and engineering physics, and Shivank Garg (’10), an undergraduate majoring in chemistry. The work was funded by DARPA and the Cornell Center for Materials Research.

The work was published online Oct. 27 in the journal Nano Letters.

For more information, visit: www.cornell.edu  







Published: November 2009
Glossary
electronics
That branch of science involved in the study and utilization of the motion, emissions and behaviors of currents of electrical energy flowing through gases, vacuums, semiconductors and conductors, not to be confused with electrics, which deals primarily with the conduction of large currents of electricity through metals.
nano
An SI prefix meaning one billionth (10-9). Nano can also be used to indicate the study of atoms, molecules and other structures and particles on the nanometer scale. Nano-optics (also referred to as nanophotonics), for example, is the study of how light and light-matter interactions behave on the nanometer scale. See nanophotonics.
photonics
The technology of generating and harnessing light and other forms of radiant energy whose quantum unit is the photon. The science includes light emission, transmission, deflection, amplification and detection by optical components and instruments, lasers and other light sources, fiber optics, electro-optical instrumentation, related hardware and electronics, and sophisticated systems. The range of applications of photonics extends from energy generation to detection to communications and...
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