Direct synthesis of nanopatterned epitaxial graphene on silicon carbide

David A Katzmarek; Andrea Mancini; Stefan A Maier; Francesca Iacopi

doi:10.1088/1361-6528/ace369

Direct synthesis of nanopatterned epitaxial graphene on silicon carbide

Nanotechnology. 2023 Jul 19;34(40). doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/ace369.

Authors

David A Katzmarek^{1

2}, Andrea Mancini³, Stefan A Maier^{4

5

6}, Francesca Iacopi^{1

2

6}

Affiliations

¹ School of Electrical and Data Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia.
² Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence on Transformative Meta-Optical Systems, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia.
³ Chair in Hybrid Nanosystems, Nanoinstitute Munich, Faculty of Physics, Ludwig-Maxilimians-Universität München, München D-80539, Germany.
⁴ School of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Science, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia.
⁵ Department of Physics, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom.
⁶ Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia.

PMID: 37399800
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/ace369

Abstract

This article introduces a straightforward approach for the direct synthesis of transfer-free, nanopatterned epitaxial graphene on silicon carbide on silicon substrates. A catalytic alloy tailored to optimal SiC graphitization is pre-patterned with common lithography and lift-off techniques to form planar graphene structures on top of an unpatterned SiC layer. This method is compatible with both electron-beam lithography and UV-lithography, and graphene gratings down to at least ∼100 nm width/space can be realized at the wafer scale. The minimum pitch is limited by the flow of the metal catalyst during the liquid-phase graphitization process. We expect that the current pitch resolution could be further improved by optimizing the metal deposition method and lift-off process.

Keywords: catalysts; epitaxial graphene; lift-off processes; near-field microscopy; patterning; silicon carbide.

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