Effect of the Pressure of Reaction Gases on the Growth of Single-Crystal Graphene on the Inner Surfaces of Copper Pockets

• Published in: Micromachines (Basel) Vol. 11; no. 12; p. 1101
• Main Authors: Yang, Kaiqiang, Liu, Jianlong, Jiang, Ruirui, Gong, Yubin, Zeng, Baoqing, Yi, Zichuan, Gao, Qingguo, Yang, Jianjun, Chi, Feng, Liu, Liming
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 14.12.2020; MDPI
• Subjects: Carbon; Chemical vapor deposition; Copper; copper pocket; Crystal growth; Electrical properties; Etching; Evaporation; Grain boundaries; Graphene; growth pressure; Metal foils; Methane; Methods; Nucleation; nucleation density; Partial pressure; Polymethyl methacrylate; Pressure effects; Single crystals; single-crystal graphene; size; Surface roughness; Thin films; size; growth pressure; copper pocket; nucleation density; single-crystal graphene
• ISSN: 2072-666X; 2072-666X
• DOI: 10.3390/mi11121101

Single-crystal graphene has attracted much attention due to its excellent electrical properties in recent years, and many growth methods have been proposed, including the copper pockets method. In the copper pockets method, a piece of copper foil is folded into a pocket and put into a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system for the growth of graphene. The dynamic balance of evaporation and deposition of copper on the inner surfaces of the copper pockets avoids high surface roughness caused by the evaporation of copper in open space, such as the outer surfaces of copper pockets. Much lower partial pressure of methane in the copper pockets and lower surface roughness reduce the nucleation density of graphene and increase the size of single-crystal graphene. It is found that the growth pressure is closely related to the size of single-crystal graphene prepared by the copper pockets method; the higher the growth pressure, the larger the size of single-crystal graphene. It is also found that the growth pressure has an effect on the inner surface roughness of the copper pockets, but the effect is not significant. The main factor affecting the size of the single-crystal graphene is the change in the volume of the copper pockets caused by the change in the growth pressure, and the volume of the copper pockets determines the content of methane in the copper pockets. According to the above law, the size of single-crystal graphene prepared by the copper pockets method can be enlarged by increasing the growth pressure. The size of single-crystal graphene can be enlarged in a wide range as the growth pressure can be increased in a wide range. In our experiments, when the growth pressure reached 450 Pa, single-crystal graphene with a diameter of 450 μm was prepared.