Towards integration into silicon based technology: graphene on thin-film SiC/Si(111)

P.G. MONDELLI, Sapienza Università di Roma

The disclosure of the astonishing properties of graphene drew the global attention for the development of new and graphene-based electronic devices. The very high carrier mobility (2x10^5 cm^2/Vs), along with the extraordinarily low specific surface area (2600 m^2/g), can be viewed as the perfect starting points for the improvement of the modern electronic devices in terms of size and computational speed. However, the most common synthesis processes (micro-mechanical cleavage and Chemical Vapor Deposition) are affected by several issues, among which the most important are the high production cost, the great density of defects for the resulting graphene (that strongly affects its electronic behaviour) and the impossibility for the following integration with the already existing silicon-based devices. The graphitization of 3C-SiC, an allotropic form of Silicon Carbide, represents a good compromise between these issues.

In this work, the synthesis and characterization of graphene on a thin-film of SiC grown on Si(111) surface is presented. The system has been studied by scanning tunnelling microscopy, Raman and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. In particular, we show how the introduction of a hydrogen etching step during the graphene growth, results in a much better quality of the graphene layer, an important step forward to an industrial evolution towards its potential integration into Si-based devices for such a promising material.

 
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