Epitaxial growth of graphene on transition metal surfaces: chemical vapor deposition versus liquid phase deposition

• Published in: Journal of physics. Condensed matter 2012-08, Vol.24 (31), p.314204-314204
• Main Authors: Grandthyll, Samuel, Gsell, Stefan, Weinl, Michael, Schreck, Matthias, Hüfner, Stefan, Müller, Frank
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chemical vapor deposition; Chemical vapor deposition (including plasma-enhanced cvd, mocvd, etc.); Condensed matter; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Epitaxial growth; Exact sciences and technology; Graphene; Lattices; Liquid phase deposition; Liquid phase epitaxy; deposition from liquid phases (melts, solutions, and surface layers on liquids); Materials science; Methods of deposition of films and coatings; film growth and epitaxy; Physics; Precursors; Transition metals
• ISSN: 0953-8984; 1361-648X
• DOI: 10.1088/0953-8984/24/31/314204

The epitaxial growth of graphene on transition metal surfaces by ex situ deposition of liquid precursors (LPD, liquid phase deposition) is compared to the standard method of chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The performance of LPD strongly depends on the particular transition metal surface. For Pt(111), Ir(111) and Rh(111), the formation of a graphene monolayer is hardly affected by the way the precursor is provided. In the case of Ni(111), the growth of graphene strongly depends on the applied synthesis method. For CVD of propene on Ni(111), a 1 × 1 structure as expected from the vanishing lattice mismatch is observed. However, in spite of the nearly perfect lattice match, a multi-domain structure with 1 × 1 and two additional rotated domains is obtained when an oxygen-containing precursor (acetone) is provided ex situ.