Jeong Hun Mun

Direct Measurement of Adhesion Energy of Monolayer Graphene As-Grown on Copper and Its Application to Renewable Transfer Process

Direct measurement of the adhesion energy of monolayer graphene as-grown on metal substrates is important to better understand its bonding mechanism and control the mechanical release of the graphene from the substrates, but it has not been reported yet. We report the adhesion energy of large-area monolayer graphene synthesized on copper measured by double cantilever beam fracture mechanics testing. The adhesion energy of 0.72 ± 0.07 J m(-2) was found. Knowing the directly measured value, we further demonstrate the etching-free renewable transfer process of monolayer graphene that utilizes the repetition of the mechanical delamination followed by the regrowth of monolayer graphene on a copper substrate.

Monolayer graphene growth on sputtered thin film platinum

It is demonstrated that sputtered thin film platinum (Pt) can be used as a catalytic metal for graphene growth on metal. During the crystallization annealing, the sputtered Pt is crystallized mostly into Pt (111) orientation, maintaining excellent surface roughness with no sign of agglomeration. The relatively lower carbon solubility in Pt and the good surface roughness of the thin film Pt enable us to form a uniform monolayer graphene on Pt over the entire region of the thin film Pt/SiO2/Si substrate by carbon dissolution and segregation method processed in a methane ambient. The monolayer graphene grown on Pt has been successfully transferred to SiO2/Si substrate by simple wet etching of Pt. The results of Raman spectroscopic and scanning tunneling microscopic measurements of the synthesized graphene layer are presented.

Graphene Gate Electrode for MOS Structure-Based Electronic Devices

We demonstrate that the use of a monolayer graphene as a gate electrode on top of a high-κ gate dielectric eliminates mechanical-stress-induced-gate dielectric degradation, resulting in a quantum leap of gate dielectric reliability. The high work function of hole-doped graphene also helps reduce the quantum mechanical tunneling current from the gate electrode. This concept is applied to nonvolatile Flash memory devices, whose performance is critically affected by the quality of the gate dielectric. Charge-trap flash (CTF) memory with a graphene gate electrode shows superior data retention and program/erase performance that current CTF devices cannot achieve. The findings of this study can lead to new applications of graphene, not only for Flash memory devices but also for other high-performance and mass-producible electronic devices based on MOS structure which is the mainstream of the electronic device industry.

Synthesis of monolayer graphene having a negligible amount of wrinkles by stress relaxation.

For the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of graphene, the grain growth of the catalyst metal and thereby surface roughening are unavoidable during the high temperature annealing for the graphene synthesis. Considering that nanoscale wrinkles and poor uniformity of synthesized graphene originate from the roughened metal surface, improving surface flatness of metal thin films is one of the key factors to synthesize high quality graphene. Here, we introduce a new method for graphene synthesis for fewer wrinkle formation on a catalyst metal. The method utilizes a reduced graphene oxide (rGO) interfacial layer between the metal film and the wafer substrate. The rGO interlayer releases the residual stress of the metal thin film and thereby suppresses stress-induced metal grain growth. This technique makes it possible to use much thinner nickel films, leading to a dramatic suppression of RMS roughness (~3 nm) of the metal surface even after high temperature annealing. It also endows excellent control of the graphene thickness due to the reduced amount of total carbon in the thin nickel film. The synthesized graphene layer having negligible amount of wrinkles exhibits excellent thickness uniformity (91% coverage of monolayer) and very high carrier mobility of ~15,000 cm(2)/V·s.

Doping suppression and mobility enhancement of graphene transistors fabricated using an adhesion promoting dry transfer process

We present the facile dry transfer of graphene synthesized via chemical vapor deposition on copper film to a functional device substrate. High quality uniform dry transfer of graphene to oxidized silicon substrate was achieved by exploiting the beneficial features of a poly(4-vinylphenol) adhesive layer involving a strong adhesion energy to graphene and negligible influence on the electronic and structural properties of graphene. The graphene field effect transistors (FETs) fabricated using the dry transfer process exhibit excellent electrical performance in terms of high FET mobility and low intrinsic doping level, which proves the feasibility of our approach in graphene-based nanoelectronics.

Graphene as anode electrode for colloidal quantum dots based light emitting diodes

Graphene films demonstrating low sheet resistance and high transparency in the visible light range are promising to be used as electrodes for light-emitting applications. In this work, we report the implementation of single layer graphene as hole injecting electrode for CdSe/ZnS quantum dot-light emitting diodes (QD-LED). We compare graphene vs. indium-tin-oxide (ITO)-based anode junctions by electroluminescence intensity performance of QD-LEDs. Our results demonstrate better hole injection efficiency for the graphene-based electrode at technologically relevant current densities J < 0.4 A/cm2, therefore, recommending single layer graphene as a valuable alternative to replace ITO in QD-LED technology.

Charge transfer effects in graphene-CdSe/ZnS quantum dots composites

Graphene possesses unique physical properties, due to its specific energy bands configuration, substantially different from that of materials traditionally employed in solid-state optoelectronics. Among the variety of remarkable properties, strong field effect, high transparency in the visible-light range and low resistivity of graphene sheets are the most attractive ones for optoelectronic applications. Zero-dimensional colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals, known as quantum dots (QDs), attract immense attention in the field of photonics due to their size-dependent tunable optical properties. By combining these two types of nanomaterials together, we demonstrate the role of graphene as an efficient charge transfer medium from- and to II-VI quantum dots. The optical excitation of II-VI quantum dots dispersed on single layer graphene results in an electron transfer from the nanocrystals to graphene. This is evidenced from photoluminescence imaging and confirmed by the electrical measurements on QDs-decorated single layer graphene field effect transistors (SLG-FET). In the second part of this paper we demonstrate an efficient hole injection from graphene into QDs-layered nanocrystalline structures and the operation of the corresponding graphene-based quantum dot light emitting diodes (QD-LED). We also benchmark graphene vs. indium-tin-oxide (ITO) based QD-LEDs in terms of device electroluminescence intensity performance. Our experimental results show better hole injection efficiency for graphenebased electrode at current densities as high as 200 mA/cm2 and suggest single layer graphene as a strong candidate to replace ITO in QD-LED technology.

Wrinkle-free graphene with spatially uniform electrical properties grown on hot-pressed copper

The chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of graphene on Cu substrates enables the fabrication of large-area monolayer graphene on desired substrates. However, during the transfer of the synthesized graphene, topographic defects are unavoidably formed along the Cu grain boundaries, degrading the electrical properties of graphene and increasing the device-to-device variability. Here, we introduce a method of hot-pressing as a surface pre-treatment to improve the thermal stability of Cu thin film for the suppression of grain boundary grooving. The flattened Cu thin film maintains its smooth surface even after the subsequent high temperature CVD process necessary for graphene growth, and the formation of graphene without wrinkles is realized. Graphene field effect transistors (FETs) fabricated using the graphene synthesized on hot-pressed Cu thin film exhibit superior field effect mobility and significantly reduced device-to-device variation.

Physical-gap-channel graphene field effect transistor with high on/off current ratio for digital logic applications

We propose and analyze an approach to secure a high on/off current ratio in a graphene field effect transistor (FET) by introducing a physical gap along the channel rather than by attempting to open the energy bandgap of graphene. The device simulation results of the newly proposed device structure reveal highly suppressed off-state current of ∼10−9 A/μm, an on/off current ratio of more than seven orders of magnitude, and a subthreshold slope of 2.23 mV/decade more than a 20-fold reduction relative to the theoretical limitation of conventional metal-oxide-semiconductor FETs.

>1000-Fold Lifetime Extension of a Nickel Electromechanical Contact Device via Graphene

Micro-/nano-electromechanical (M/NEM) switches have received significant attention as promising switching devices for a wide range of applications such as computing, radio frequency communication, and power gating devices. However, M/NEM switches still suffer from unacceptably low reliability because of irreversible degradation at the contacting interfaces, hindering adoption in practical applications and further development. Here, we evaluate and verify graphene as a contact material for reliability-enhanced M/NEM switching devices. Atomic force microscopy experiments and quantum mechanics calculations reveal that energy-efficient mechanical contact-separation characteristics are achieved when a few layers of graphene are used as a contact material on a nickel surface, reducing the energy dissipation by 96.6% relative to that of a bare nickel surface. Importantly, graphene displays almost elastic contact-separation, indicating that little atomic-scale wear, including plastic deformation, fracture, and atomic attrition, is generated. We also develop a feasible fabrication method to demonstrate a MEM switch, which has high-quality graphene as the contact material, and verify that the devices with graphene show mechanically stable and elastic-like contact properties, consistent with our nanoscale contact experiment. The graphene coating extends the switch lifetime >103 times under hot switching conditions.