Effect of Polar Faces of SiC on the Epitaxial Growth of Graphene: Growth Mechanism and Its Implications for Structural and Electrical Properties

Autor: Stefan A. Pitsch, R. Radhakrishnan Sumathi
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Crystals, Vol 13, Iss 2, p 189 (2023)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2073-4352
DOI: 10.3390/cryst13020189
Popis: In this study, epitaxial graphene layers of cm2 sizes were grown on silicon carbide (SiC) substrates by high-temperature sublimation. The behavior of the two crystallographic SiC-polar faces and its effect on the growth mechanism of graphene layers and their properties were investigated. Crystallographic structural differences observed in AFM studies were shown to cause disparities in the electrical conductivity of the grown layers. On the silicon-polar (Si-polar) face of SiC, the graphene formation occurred in spike-like structures that originated orthogonally from atomic steps of the substrate and grew outwards in the form of 2D nucleation with a fairly good surface coverage over time. On the carbon-polar (C-polar) face, a hexagonal structure already formed at the beginning of the growth process. On both polar faces, the known process of step-bunching promoted the formation of nm-scale structural obstacles. Such a step-bunching effect was found to be more pronounced on the C-polar face. These 2D-obstacles account for a low probability of a complete nano-sheet formation, but favor 2D-structures, comparable to graphene nanoribbons. The resulting direction-dependent anisotropic behavior in electrical conductivity measured by four-point probe method mainly depends on the height and spacing between these structural-obstacles. The anisotropy becomes less prudent as and when more graphene layers are synthesized.
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