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The structure of suspended graphene sheets

Nature volume 446, pages 60–63 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

The recent discovery of graphene has sparked much interest, thus far focused on the peculiar electronic structure of this material, in which charge carriers mimic massless relativistic particles1,2,3. However, the physical structure of graphene—a single layer of carbon atoms densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice—is also puzzling. On the one hand, graphene appears to be a strictly two-dimensional material, exhibiting such a high crystal quality that electrons can travel submicrometre distances without scattering. On the other hand, perfect two-dimensional crystals cannot exist in the free state, according to both theory and experiment4,5,6,7,8,9. This incompatibility can be avoided by arguing that all the graphene structures studied so far were an integral part of larger three-dimensional structures, either supported by a bulk substrate or embedded in a three-dimensional matrix1,2,3,9,10,11,12. Here we report on individual graphene sheets freely suspended on a microfabricated scaffold in vacuum or air. These membranes are only one atom thick, yet they still display long-range crystalline order. However, our studies by transmission electron microscopy also reveal that these suspended graphene sheets are not perfectly flat: they exhibit intrinsic microscopic roughening such that the surface normal varies by several degrees and out-of-plane deformations reach 1 nm. The atomically thin single-crystal membranes offer ample scope for fundamental research and new technologies, whereas the observed corrugations in the third dimension may provide subtle reasons for the stability of two-dimensional crystals13,14,15.

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Figure 1: Suspended graphene membrane.
Figure 2: Transmission electron microscopy of graphene.
Figure 3: Microscopically corrugated graphene.
Figure 4: Atomic resolution imaging of graphene membranes.

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Acknowledgements

We thank B. Freitag and D. Beamer of FEI for providing access to their in-house TEM Titan. This work was supported by the EU project CANAPE, the EPSRC (UK) and the Royal Society. M.I.K. acknowledges financial support from FOM (Netherlands).

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Heisenbergstrasse 1, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany

    Jannik C. Meyer & S. Roth

  2. Manchester Centre for Mesoscience and Nanotechnology, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK

    A. K. Geim, K. S. Novoselov & T. J. Booth

  3. Institute for Molecules and Materials, Radboud University of Nijmegen, Toernooiveld 1, 6525 ED Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    M. I. Katsnelson

Authors
  1. Jannik C. Meyer
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  2. A. K. Geim
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  3. M. I. Katsnelson
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  4. K. S. Novoselov
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  5. T. J. Booth
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  6. S. Roth
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Correspondence to Jannik C. Meyer or A. K. Geim.

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Meyer, J., Geim, A., Katsnelson, M. et al. The structure of suspended graphene sheets. Nature 446, 60–63 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05545

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