Epitaxial Growth Of Graphene By Thermal Decomposition Of Silicon Carbide

Since Prof. Andre Geim and reseacher Kostya Novoselov prepared graphene out at the first time in Manchester University in2004, it greatly shocked many scientists all over the world. As a result, they both won the Nobel Physics Prize in2010. It’s no doubt that graphene is another significant discovery after fulleren ball and carbon nanotube.Graphene is a promising nanoelectronic material that may replace silicon owing to its excellent electronic properties. Currently, there are mainly four methods for obtaining graphene, i.e. scotchtape method, chemical exfoliation, chemical vapour deposition (CVD) on metal surfaces, and surface thermal decomposition of silicon carbide (SiC). Among these methods, epitaxial growth by thermal decomposition on SiC is of great potential in electronic application. The preparation and morphology characterization of samples have always been the crucial technologies in the research. RF induction heat furnace is used to grow graphene in this article. The morphology, crystal structure, electrical transport and mechanical behaviors are analyzed via the characterization instruments, such as optical microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and so on.In this paper, the structure of SiC and graphene are introduced and it is explained how the band structure is related to its electronic properties, such as the anomalous quantum Hall effect, high mobility even at room temperature and ballistic transport in carbon nanotubes. The hydrogen etching of SiC and the epitaxial growth method is then reviewed. By comparing the surface morphology of the material grown on different crystal face of SiC and in different conditions, furnace grown C-face graphene is shown to be particularly exceptional. After that, morphology characterization of C-face graphene is discussed, and the mechanism of epitaxial growth on C-face is suggested.