Fabrication of graphene on atomically flat diamond (111) surfaces using nickel as a catalyst

摘要

We fabricated graphene on atomically flat diamond (111) surfaces via annealing with nickel as a catalyst. The annealing was conducted at 900 degrees C for 1 min under Ar atmosphere. Using Raman spectroscopy, the formed graphene was characterized as multilayer with some monolayer coverage. After the graphene layers were removed, the diamond (111) surfaces exhibited step-terrace structures with a root-mean-square roughness of 0.05 nm in the terrace region. The step height was similar to 0.21 nm, which agreed well with a single bi-atomic layer of (111) diamond. These results indicate that the graphene layers were formed on atomically flat diamond (111) surfaces with step-terrace structures. The graphene layers showed P-type conduction with sheet carrier concentration and mobility values of 5.7 x 10(13) cm(-2) and 140 cm(2)/Vs, respectively. These electrical properties are equivalent to the band structure properties predicted by density functional theory calculations. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.