Applied Physics Letters

We present graphene nanowires implemented as dispersion free self switched microwave diode detectors. The microwave properties of the detectors are investigated using vector corrected large signal measurements in order to determine the detector responsivity and noise equivalent power (NEP) as a function of frequency, input power, and device geometry. We identify two distinct conductance nonlinearities which generate detector responsivity: an edge effect nonlinearity near zero bias due to lateral gating of the nanowire structures, and a velocity saturation nonlinearity which generates current compression at high power levels. The scaling study shows that detector responsivity obeys an exponential scaling law with respect to nanowire width, and a peak responsivity (NEP) of 250 V/W (50 pW/ ) is observed in detectors of the smallest width. The results are promising as the devices exhibit responsivities which are comparable to state of the art self switched detectors in semiconductor technologies.

Published in: "Applied Physics Letters".

Published in: "Applied Physics Letters".

The direct transfer method, wherein graphene is transferred from its growth metal to a soft substrate, is widely used to fabricate various devices, and the interfacial bonding condition between the substrate and the graphene is vital for transfer success. In this letter, we present a theoretical model to derive the wettability requirements of the soft substrate to sustain the direct transfer of graphene, and verify the theoretical analysis with experiments. We find that the surface energy components of the substrate have a crucial effect upon the graphene transfer, and that substrates possessing a strong polar surface energy are not suitable for transfer. The theoretical model predicts the critical water contact angle of the soft substrate for graphene transfer to be about 50°, and the experiments measure it to be about 60°. These results provide guidelines for choosing proper substrates to transfer graphene during the fabrication of graphene-based flexible devices.

Published in: "Applied Physics Letters".

A simple and viable method was developed to produce biaxial strain in monolayer graphene on an array of SiO2 nanopillars. The array of SiO2 nanopillars (1 cm2 in area, 80 nm in height, and 40 nm in pitch) was fabricated by employing self-assembled block copolymer through simple dry etching and deposition processes. According to high resolution micro-Raman spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy analyses, 0.9% of maximum biaxial tensile strain and 0.17% of averaged biaxial tensile strain in graphene were created. This technique provides a simple and viable method to form biaxial tensile strain in graphene and offers a practical platform for future studies in graphene strain engineering.

Published in: "Applied Physics Letters".

We report on room temperature detection of terahertz radiation by means of antenna-coupled field effect transistors (FETs) fabricated using epitaxial graphene grown on silicon carbide. The achieved photoresponsivity (∼0.25 V/W) and noise equivalent power (∼80 nW/ ) result from the combined effect of two independent detection mechanisms: over-damped plasma wave rectification and thermoelectric effects, the latter ascribed to the presence of carrier density junctions along the FET channel. The calculated plasmonic and thermoelectric response reproduces qualitatively well the measured photovoltages; the experimentally observed sign-switch demonstrates the stronger contribution of plasmonic detection compared to the thermoelectric one. These results unveil the potential of plasmonic detectors exploiting epitaxial graphene on silicon carbide for fast large area imaging of macroscopic samples.

Published in: "Applied Physics Letters".

Modern structural biology relies on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), X-ray crystallography, and cryo-electron microscopy for gaining information on biomolecules at nanometer, sub-nanometer, or atomic resolution. All these methods, however, require averaging over a vast ensemble of entities, and hence knowledge on the conformational landscape of an individual particle is lost. Unfortunately, there are now strong indications that even X-ray free electron lasers will not be able to image individual molecules but will require nanocrystal samples. Here, we show that non-destructive structural biology of single particles has now become possible by means of low-energy electron holography. As an example, individual tobacco mosaic virions deposited on ultraclean freestanding graphene are imaged at 1 nm resolution revealing structural details arising from the helical arrangement of the outer protein shell of the virus. Since low-energy electron holography is a lens-less technique and since electrons with a deBroglie wavelength of approximately 1 Å do not impose radiation damage to biomolecules, the method has the potential for Angstrom resolution imaging of single biomolecules.

Published in: "Applied Physics Letters".

Phase change memory (PCM) devices are known to reduce in power consumption as the bit volume and contact area of their electrodes are scaled down. Here, we demonstrate two types of low-power PCM devices with lateral graphene ribbon electrodes: one in which the graphene is patterned into narrow nanoribbons and the other where the phase change material is patterned into nanoribbons. The sharp graphene “edge” contacts enable switching with threshold voltages as low as ∼3 V, low programming currents (μA SET and μA RESET) and OFF/ON resistance ratios >100. Large-scale fabrication with graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition also enables the study of heterogeneous integration and that of variability for such nanomaterials and devices.

Published in: "Applied Physics Letters".

We report on an X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) study of two graphene based devices that were analyzed by imposing a significant current under +3 V bias. The devices were fabricated as graphene layers(s) on hexagonal SiC substrates, either on the C- or Si-terminated faces. Position dependent potential distributions (IR-drop), as measured by variations in the binding energy of a C1s peak are observed to be sporadic for the C-face graphene sample, but very smooth for the Si-face one, although the latter is less conductive. We attribute these sporadic variations in the C-face device to the incomplete electrical decoupling between the graphene layer(s) with the underlying buffer and/or substrate layers. Variations in the Si2p and O1s peaks of the underlayer(s) shed further light into the electrical interaction between graphene and other layers. Since the potential variations are amplified only under applied bias (voltage-contrast), our methodology gives unique, chemically specific electrical information that is difficult to obtain by other techniques.

Published in: "Applied Physics Letters".

By placing a material in close vicinity of a resonant optical element, its intrinsic optical response can be tuned, possibly to a wide extent. Here, we show that a graphene monolayer, spaced a few tenths of nanometers from a split ring resonator metasurface, exhibits a magneto-optical response which is strongly influenced by the presence of the metasurface itself. This hybrid system holds promises in view of thin optical modulators, polarization rotators, and nonreciprocal devices, in the technologically relevant terahertz spectral range. Moreover, it could be chosen as the playground for investigating the cavity electrodynamics of Dirac fermions in the quantum regime.

Published in: "Applied Physics Letters".

Electron emission properties of multilayer graphene (MLG) prepared by a facile exfoliation technique have been studied. Effect of CO2 Ar, N2, plasma treatment was studied using Raman spectroscopy and investigated for field emission based application. The CO2 plasma treated multilayer graphene shows an enhanced field emission behavior with a low turn on field of 0.18 V/μm and high emission current density of 1.89 mA/cm2 at an applied field of 0.35 V/μm. Further the plasma treated MLG exhibits excellent current stability at a lower and higher emission current value.

Published in: "Applied Physics Letters".