Atomic-scale metrology is key in fabricating graphene devices

URL

http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=19877.php

Description

Graphene is a very interesting nanomaterial with potential for applications in many different fields including nanoelectronics. However, the properties of graphene can vary broadly and depend sensitively on its integration in device structures and the details of its interaction with other materials, such as underlying substrates or gate dielectrics. Unlike other semiconductor electronic devices, where the active layer is buried below the surface and where microscopic details of transport cannot be directly examined, graphene is exposed at a surface and can be directly examined on the atomic scale using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS). Some of the unique properties of graphene are its chemical stability and a relatively weak interaction with the environment. This is why graphene has high-quality transport properties while being just a monolayer thin. However, while the interaction with the environment is indeed weak, this residual interactio