On the mechanisms of precipitation of graphene on nickel thin films

L. Baraton (1) , Z. B. He (1) , C. S. Lee (1) , C.S. Cojocaru (1) , Marc Châtelet (1) , J.-L. Maurice (1) , Y.H. Lee (2) , D. Pribat (2)

1 LPICM - Laboratoire de physique des interfaces et des couches minces [Palaiseau]
2 Department of Energy Science

Growth on transition metal substrates is becoming a method of choice to prepare large-area graphene foils. In the case of nickel, where carbon has a significant solubility, such a growth process includes at least two elementary steps: (1) carbon dissolution into the metal, and (2) graphene precipitation at the surface. Here, we dissolve calibrated amounts of carbon in nickel films, using carbon ion implantation, and annealing at 725 °C or 900 °C. We then use transmission electron microscopy to analyse the precipitation process in detail: the latter appears to imply carbon diffusion over large distances and at least two distinct microscopic mechanisms.

Mots clés: Graphene films; Materials science: graphene; Methods of micro- and nanofabrication and processing: catalytic methods

Domaines: Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

L. Baraton, Z. B. He, C. S. Lee, C.S. Cojocaru, Marc Châtelet, et al.. On the mechanisms of precipitation of graphene on nickel thin films. EPL - Europhysics Letters, 2011, 96, pp.46003. ⟨10.1209/0295-5075/96/46003⟩. ⟨hal-00601452v2⟩