Direct graphene growth on (111) Cu2O templates with atomic Cu surface layer
This work explores nucleation and epitaxy of graphene on crystalline Cu2O templates formed via self assembly and surface reduction of Cu2O nanocrystallites on the cubic textured (100) orientation Cu (CTO-Cu) and polycrystalline Cu (poly-Cu) substrates, respectively. It has been found that the presence of sub-surface oxygen causes the reconstruction of Cu surface due to the formation of oriented Cu2O nanocrystallites at a low H2 gas flow. Self-assembly of the Cu2O nanocrystallites into a textured surface template provides direct nucleation sites for graphene growth after the oxygen-sublattice on the template surface is reduced. The atomic Cu surface layer provides advantages of high graphene growth rate due to the catalytic role of Cu and in-plane alignment of graphene nuclei. It is particularly important that the Cu2O crystallites have predominantly (111) orientation aligned to each other in the plane of the (100) CTO-Cu substrates, which allows epitaxy of graphene with much lower defect density as compared to that in the poly-Cu case. Since Cu2O (111) templates may be developed on lattice matched (100) surfaces of other dielectric materials, this self-assembly approach provides a promising pathway for large-scale, transfer free graphene epitaxy on nonmetallic surfaces.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science - Office of Basic Energy Sciences - Materials Sciences and Engineering Division; U.S. Army Research Laboratory - U.S. Army Research Office (ARO); National Science Foundation (NSF)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-06CH11357
- OSTI ID:
- 1352859
- Journal Information:
- Carbon, Vol. 95; ISSN 0008-6223
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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