Raman Sensitive Degradation and Etching Dynamics of Exfoliated Black Phosphorus

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 7; no. 1; p. 44540
• Main Authors: Alsaffar, Fadhel, Alodan, Sarah, Alrasheed, Abdul, Alhussain, Abdulrahman, Alrubaiq, Noura, Abbas, Ahmad, Amer, Moh. R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 20.03.2017; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 140/133; 142/126; 639/166/987; 639/301/357/1018; 639/624/1107/328/1978; 639/624/1107/527/1821; 639/925/357/1018; Etching; Fabrication; Humanities and Social Sciences; multidisciplinary; Oxidation; Phosphorus; Polymethylmethacrylate; Scanning; Science; Thin films
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep44540

Layered black phosphorus has drawn much attention due to the existence of a band gap compared to the widely known graphene. However, environmental stability of black phosphorus is still a major issue, which hinders the realization of practical device applications. Here, we spatially Raman map exfoliated black phosphorus using confocal fast-scanning technique at different time intervals. We observe a Raman intensity modulation for , B 2 g , and modes. This Raman modulation is found to be caused by optical interference, which gives insights into the oxidation mechanism. Finally, we examine the fabrication compatible PMMA coating as a viable passivation layer. Our measurements indicate that PMMA passivated black phosphorus thin film flakes can stay pristine for a period of 19 days when left in a dark environment, allowing sufficient time for further nanofabrication processing. Our results shed light on black phosphorus degradation which can aid future passivation methods.