Spatially Controlled Nucleation of Single-Crystal Graphene on Cu Assisted by Stacked Ni.

Ding, Dong; Solís-Fernández, Pablo; Hibino, Hiroki; Ago, Hiroki · ACS Nano · 2016

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

In spite of recent progress of graphene growth using chemical vapor deposition, it is still a challenge to precisely control the nucleation site of graphene for the development of wafer-scale single-crystal graphene. In addition, the postgrowth patterning used for device fabrication deteriorates the quality of graphene. Herein we demonstrate the site-selective nucleation of single-crystal graphene on Cu foil based on spatial control of the local CH<sub>4</sub> concentration by a perforated Ni foil. The catalytically active Ni foil acts as a CH<sub>4</sub> modulator, resulting in millimeter-scale single-crystal grains at desired positions. The perforated Ni foil also allows to synthesize patterned graphene without any postgrowth processing. Furthermore, the uniformity of monolayer graphene is significantly improved when a plain Ni foil is placed below the Cu. Our findings offer a facile and effective way to control the nucleation of high-quality graphene, meeting the requirements of industrial processing.