Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference (한국진공학회:학술대회논문집)

The Korean Vacuum Society (한국진공학회)
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Large-Area Synthesis of High-Quality Graphene Films with Controllable Thickness by Rapid Thermal Annealing

  • Chu, Jae Hwan (School of Mechanical and Advanced Materials Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology) ;
  • Kwak, Jinsung (School of Mechanical and Advanced Materials Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology) ;
  • Kwon, Tae-Yang (School of Mechanical and Advanced Materials Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology) ;
  • Park, Soon-Dong (School of Mechanical and Advanced Materials Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology) ;
  • Go, Heungseok (School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology) ;
  • Kim, Sung Youb (School of Mechanical and Advanced Materials Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology) ;
  • Park, Kibog (School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology) ;
  • Kang, Seoktae (Department of Civil Engineering, Kyung Hee University) ;
  • Kwon, Soon-Yong (School of Mechanical and Advanced Materials Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology)
  • Published : 2013.08.21
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Abstract

Today, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of hydrocarbon gases has been demonstrated as an attractive method to synthesize large-area graphene layers. However, special care should be taken to precisely control the resulting graphene layers in CVD due to its sensitivity to various process parameters. Therefore, a facile synthesis to grow graphene layers with high controllability will have great advantages for scalable practical applications. In order to simplify and create efficiency in graphene synthesis, the graphene growth by thermal annealing process has been discussed by several groups. However, the study on growth mechanism and the detailed structural and optoelectronic properties in the resulting graphene films have not been reported yet, which will be of particular interest to explore for the practical application of graphene. In this study, we report the growth of few-layer, large-area graphene films using rapid thermal annealing (RTA) without the use of intentional carbon-containing precursor. The instability of nickel films in air facilitates the spontaneous formation of ultrathin (<2~3 nm) carbon- and oxygen-containing compounds on a nickel surface and high-temperature annealing of the nickel samples results in the formation of few-layer graphene films with high crystallinity. From annealing temperature and ambient studies during RTA, it was found that the evaporation of oxygen atoms from the surface is the dominant factor affecting the formation of graphene films. The thickness of the graphene layers is strongly dependent on the RTA temperature and time and the resulting films have a limited thickness less than 2 nm even for an extended RTA time. The transferred films have a low sheet resistance of ~380 ${\Omega}/sq$, with ~93% optical transparency. This simple and potentially inexpensive method of synthesizing novel 2-dimensional carbon films offers a wide choice of graphene films for various potential applications.

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