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Growth of a two-dimensional dielectric monolayer on quasi-freestanding graphene

Nature Nanotechnology volume 8, pages 41–45 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Integrating graphene into device architectures requires interfacing graphene with dielectric materials1,2,3. However, the dewetting and thermal instability of dielectric layers on top of graphene makes fabricating continuous graphene/dielectric interfaces challenging4,5,6,7,8,9. Here, we show that yttria (Y2O3)—a high-κ dielectric—can form a complete monolayer on platinum-supported graphene. The monolayer interacts weakly with graphene, but is stable to high temperatures. Scanning tunnelling microscopy reveals that the yttria layer exhibits a two-dimensional hexagonal lattice rotated by 30° relative to the hexagonal graphene lattice. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy measurements indicate a shift of the Fermi level in graphene on yttria deposition, which suggests that dielectric layers could be used for charge doping of metal-supported graphene.

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Figure 1: AES and XPS of yttria growth on graphene/Pt(111).
Figure 2: STM images of yttria overlayer on graphene/Pt(111).
Figure 3: High-resolution STM studies of yttria monolayer structure.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Office of Naval Research (N00014-10-1-0668 and N00014-11-1-0779) and the National Science Foundation (DMR-1204924).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of South Florida, Florida, 33620, Tampa, USA

    Rafik Addou, Arjun Dahal & Matthias Batzill

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  1. Rafik Addou
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  2. Arjun Dahal
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  3. Matthias Batzill
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Contributions

R.A. performed STM and XPS experiments, analysed the data, and prepared figures. A.D. performed and analysed Auger measurements. M.B. conceived the experiment and wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matthias Batzill.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Addou, R., Dahal, A. & Batzill, M. Growth of a two-dimensional dielectric monolayer on quasi-freestanding graphene. Nature Nanotech 8, 41–45 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2012.217

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