Journal Home > Volume 17 , Issue 5
Nano Research 2024, 17(5): 4616-4621 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6348-9
Research Article | Issue | Published: 19 January 2024

Towards growth of pure AB-stacked bilayer graphene single crystals

Show Author's Information Xiaowen Zhang1,2,3,§,  Tao Zhou1,2,§,  Yunlong Ren1,2,§,  Zuo Feng4,§,  Ruixi Qiao5,  Qinghe Wang4,  Bin Wang1,2,  Jinxia Bai1,2,  Muhong Wu4,6,7,  Zhilie Tang1,2,  Xu Zhou1,2,  Kaihui Liu4,6,7,  Xiaozhi Xu1,2( )
Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Structure and Fundamental Interactions of Matter, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Quantum Engineering and Quantum Materials, School of Physics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Guangdong-Hong Kong Joint Laboratory of Quantum Matter, School of Physics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Physical Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal 23955–6900, Saudi Arabia
State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics, Frontiers Science Center for Nano-optoelectronics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Institute for Frontier Science, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210094, China
International Centre for Quantum Materials, Collaborative Innovation Centre of Quantum Matter, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dongguan 523808, China

§ Xiaowen Zhang, Tao Zhou, Yunlong Ren, and Zuo Feng contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
bilayer graphene, AB stacking, uniform growth, heat-resisting box
Topics:
Epitaxial growthFilm growth
Cite this article:
Zhang X, Zhou T, Ren Y, et al. Towards growth of pure AB-stacked bilayer graphene single crystals. Nano Research, 2024, 17(5): 4616-4621. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6348-9
Download citation
EndNote(RIS)
BibTeX

443

Views

124

Downloads

Citations

0

Crossref

0

WoS

0

Scopus

0

CSCD

Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Given its intriguing band structure and unique tunable bandgap, AB-stacked bilayer graphene has great potentials in the applications of high-end electronics, optoelectronics and semiconductors. The epitaxial growth of AB-stacked single-crystal bilayer graphene films requires a strict AB-stacked lattice, identical orientations and seamless stitching of bilayer graphene islands. However, the particles inevitably present on the metal surface that produced during high temperature growth would induce random orientations, twisted stacking islands, and uncontrollable multilayers, which is a great challenge to overcome. Here, we propose a heat-resisting-box assisted strategy to produce nearly pure AB-stacked bilayer graphene single-crystal films on Cu/Ni (111) foils. With our technique, the particles on the Cu/Ni (111) surface are effectively eliminated, which greatly minimizes the occurrence of randomly twisted islands and uncontrollable multilayers. The as-grown AB-stacked bilayer graphene films show > 99% alignment and > 99% AB stacking order. Our work provides a promising method towards the growth of pure AB-stacked bilayer graphene single crystals and would accelerate its device applications.


menu
Abstract
Full text
Outline
Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Towards growth of pure AB-stacked bilayer graphene single crystals

Show Author's information Xiaowen Zhang1,2,3,§, Tao Zhou1,2,§, Yunlong Ren1,2,§, Zuo Feng4,§, Ruixi Qiao5, Qinghe Wang4, Bin Wang1,2, Jinxia Bai1,2, Muhong Wu4,6,7, Zhilie Tang1,2, Xu Zhou1,2, Kaihui Liu4,6,7, Xiaozhi Xu1,2( )
Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Structure and Fundamental Interactions of Matter, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Quantum Engineering and Quantum Materials, School of Physics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Guangdong-Hong Kong Joint Laboratory of Quantum Matter, School of Physics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Physical Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal 23955–6900, Saudi Arabia
State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics, Frontiers Science Center for Nano-optoelectronics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Institute for Frontier Science, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210094, China
International Centre for Quantum Materials, Collaborative Innovation Centre of Quantum Matter, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dongguan 523808, China

§ Xiaowen Zhang, Tao Zhou, Yunlong Ren, and Zuo Feng contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Given its intriguing band structure and unique tunable bandgap, AB-stacked bilayer graphene has great potentials in the applications of high-end electronics, optoelectronics and semiconductors. The epitaxial growth of AB-stacked single-crystal bilayer graphene films requires a strict AB-stacked lattice, identical orientations and seamless stitching of bilayer graphene islands. However, the particles inevitably present on the metal surface that produced during high temperature growth would induce random orientations, twisted stacking islands, and uncontrollable multilayers, which is a great challenge to overcome. Here, we propose a heat-resisting-box assisted strategy to produce nearly pure AB-stacked bilayer graphene single-crystal films on Cu/Ni (111) foils. With our technique, the particles on the Cu/Ni (111) surface are effectively eliminated, which greatly minimizes the occurrence of randomly twisted islands and uncontrollable multilayers. The as-grown AB-stacked bilayer graphene films show > 99% alignment and > 99% AB stacking order. Our work provides a promising method towards the growth of pure AB-stacked bilayer graphene single crystals and would accelerate its device applications.

Keywords: bilayer graphene, AB stacking, uniform growth, heat-resisting box

References(42)

[1]

Lin, L.; Deng, B.; Sun, J. Y.; Peng, H. L.; Liu, Z. F. Bridging the gap between reality and ideal in chemical vapor deposition growth of graphene. Chem. Rev. 2018, 118, 9281–9343.
DOI Google Scholar
[2]

Xia, F. N.; Farmer, D. B.; Lin, Y. M.; Avouris, P. Graphene field-effect transistors with high on/off current ratio and large transport band gap at room temperature. Nano Lett. 2010, 10, 715–718.
DOI Google Scholar
[3]

Chen, Y. C.; Cao, T.; Chen, C.; Pedramrazi, Z.; Haberer, D.; De Oteyza, D. G.; Fischer, F. R.; Louie, S. G.; Crommie, M. F. Molecular bandgap engineering of bottom-up synthesized graphene nanoribbon heterojunctions. Nat. Nanotechnol. 2015, 10, 156–160.
DOI Google Scholar
[4]

Xu, X. Z.; Liu, C.; Sun, Z. H.; Cao, T.; Zhang, Z. H.; Wang, E. G.; Liu, Z. F.; Liu, K. H. Interfacial engineering in graphene bandgap. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2018, 47, 3059–3099.
DOI Google Scholar
[5]

Zhou, S. Y.; Gweon, G. H.; Fedorov, A. V.; First, P. N.; De Heer, W. A.; Lee, D. H.; Guinea, F.; Neto, A. H. C.; Lanzara, A. Substrate-induced bandgap opening in epitaxial graphene. Nat. Mater. 2007, 6, 770–775.
DOI Google Scholar
[6]

Chen, Z. L.; Qi, Y.; Chen, X. D.; Zhang, Y. F.; Liu, Z. F. Direct CVD growth of graphene on traditional glass: Methods and mechanisms. Adv. Mater. 2019, 31, 1803639.
DOI Google Scholar
[7]

Zhang, Y. B.; Tang, T. T.; Girit, C.; Hao, Z.; Martin, M. C.; Zettl, A.; Crommie, M. F.; Shen, Y. R.; Wang, F. Direct observation of a widely tunable bandgap in bilayer graphene. Nature 2009, 459, 820–823.
DOI Google Scholar
[8]

Choi, S. M.; Jhi, S. H.; Son, Y. W. Controlling energy gap of bilayer graphene by strain. Nano Lett. 2010, 10, 3486–3489.
DOI Google Scholar
[9]

Verberck, B.; Partoens, B.; Peeters, F. M.; Trauzettel, B. Strain-induced band gaps in bilayer graphene. Phys. Rev. B 2012, 85, 125403.
DOI Google Scholar
[10]

Zhang, W. J.; Lin, C. T.; Liu, K. K.; Tite, T.; Su, C. Y.; Chang, C. H.; Lee, Y. H.; Chu, C. W.; Wei, K. H.; Kuo, J. L. et al. Opening an electrical band gap of bilayer graphene with molecular doping. ACS Nano, 2011, 5, 7517–7524.
DOI Google Scholar
[11]

Mak, K. F.; Lui, C. H.; Shan, J.; Heinz, T. F. Observation of an electric-field-induced band gap in bilayer graphene by infrared spectroscopy. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2009, 102, 256405.
DOI Google Scholar
[12]

Ju, L.; Shi, Z. W.; Nair, N.; Lv, Y. C.; Jin, C. H.; Velasco, J.; Ojeda-Aristizabal, C.; Bechtel, H. A.; Martin, M. C.; Zettl, A. et al. Topological valley transport at bilayer graphene domain walls. Nature 2015, 520, 650–655.
DOI Google Scholar
[13]

Ju, L.; Wang, L.; Cao, T.; Taniguchi, T.; Watanabe, K.; Louie, S. G.; Rana, F.; Park, J.; Hone, J.; Wang, F. et al. Tunable excitons in bilayer graphene. Science 2017, 358, 907–910.
DOI Google Scholar
[14]

Yin, J. B.; Tan, C.; Barcons-Ruiz, D.; Torre, I.; Watanabe, K.; Taniguchi, T.; Song, J. C. W.; Hone, J.; Koppens, F. H. L. Tunable and giant valley-selective Hall effect in gapped bilayer graphene. Science 2022, 375, 1398–1402.
DOI Google Scholar
[15]

Li, J. I. A.; Tan, C.; Chen, S.; Zeng, Y.; Taniguchi, T.; Watanabe, K.; Hone, J.; Dean, C. R. Even-denominator fractional quantum Hall states in bilayer graphene. Science 2017, 358, 648–652.
DOI Google Scholar
[16]

Szafranek, B. N.; Schall, D.; Otto, M.; Neumaier, D.; Kurz, H. High on/off ratios in bilayer graphene field effect transistors realized by surface dopants. Nano Lett. 2011, 11, 2640–2643.
DOI Google Scholar
[17]

Jung, M.; Rickhaus, P.; Zihlmann, S.; Makk, P.; Schönenberger, C. Microwave photodetection in an ultraclean suspended bilayer graphene p-n junction. Nano Lett. 2016, 16, 6988–6993.
DOI Google Scholar
[18]

Wu, S. F.; Mao, L.; Jones, A. M.; Yao, W.; Zhang, C. W.; Xu, X. D. Quantum-enhanced tunable second-order optical nonlinearity in bilayer graphene. Nano Lett. 2012, 12, 2032–2036.
DOI Google Scholar
[19]

Liu, X. L.; Hersam, M. C. 2D materials for quantum information science. Nat. Rev. Mater. 2019, 4, 669–684.
DOI Google Scholar
[20]

Huang, M.; Bakharev, P. V.; Wang, Z. J.; Biswal, M.; Yang, Z.; Jin, S.; Wang, B.; Park, H. J.; Li, Y. Q.; Qu, D. S. et al. Large-area single-crystal AB-bilayer and ABA-trilayer graphene grown on a Cu/Ni(Ⅲ) foil. Nat. Nanotechnol. 2020, 15, 289–295.
DOI Google Scholar
[21]

Nguyen, V. L.; Duong, D. L.; Lee, S. H.; Avila, J.; Han, G.; Kim, Y. M.; Asensio, M. C.; Jeong, S. Y.; Lee, Y. H. Layer-controlled single-crystalline graphene film with stacking order via Cu-Si alloy formation. Nat. Nanotechnol. 2020, 15, 861–867.
DOI Google Scholar
[22]

Liu, W.; Kraemer, S.; Sarkar, D.; Li, H.; Ajayan, P. M.; Banerjee, K. Controllable and rapid synthesis of high-quality and large-area bernal stacked bilayer graphene using chemical vapor deposition. Chem. Mater. 2014, 26, 907–915.
DOI Google Scholar
[23]

Gao, Z. L.; Zhang, Q. C.; Naylor, C. H.; Kim, Y.; Abidi, I. H.; Ping, J. L.; Ducos, P.; Zauberman, J.; Zhao, M. Q.; Rappe, A. M. et al. Crystalline bilayer graphene with preferential stacking from Ni-Cu gradient alloy. ACS Nano 2018, 12, 2275–2282.
DOI Google Scholar
[24]

Qian, Y. T.; Kang, D. J. Large-area high-quality AB-stacked bilayer graphene on h-BN/Pt foil by chemical vapor deposition. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2018, 10, 29069–29075.
DOI Google Scholar
[25]

Deng, B.; Liu, Z. F.; Peng, H. L. Toward mass production of CVD graphene films. Adv. Mater. 2019, 31, 1800996.
DOI Google Scholar
[26]

Gao, L. B.; Ni, G. X.; Liu, Y. P.; Liu, B.; Neto, A. H. C.; Loh, K. P. Face-to-face transfer of wafer-scale graphene films. Nature 2014, 505, 190–194.
DOI Google Scholar
[27]

Gao, L. B.; Ren, W. C.; Xu, H. L.; Jin, L.; Wang, Z. X.; Ma, T.; Ma, L. P.; Zhang, Z. Y.; Fu, Q.; Peng, L. M. et al. Repeated growth and bubbling transfer of graphene with millimetre-size single-crystal grains using platinum. Nat. Commun. 2012, 3, 699.
DOI Google Scholar
[28]

Reina, A.; Jia, X. T.; Ho, J.; Nezich, D.; Son, H.; Bulovic, V.; Dresselhaus, M. S.; Kong, J. Large area, few-layer graphene films on arbitrary substrates by chemical vapor deposition. Nano Lett. 2009, 9, 30–35.
DOI Google Scholar
[29]

Zhang, J. C.; Liu, X. T.; Zhang, M. Q.; Zhang, R.; Ta, H. Q.; Sun, J. B.; Wang, W. D.; Zhu, W. Q.; Fang, T. T.; Jia, K. C. et al. Fast synthesis of large-area bilayer graphene film on Cu. Nat. Commun. 2023, 14, 3199.
DOI Google Scholar
[30]

Yan, K.; Peng, H. L.; Zhou, Y.; Li, H.; Liu, Z. F. Formation of bilayer bernal graphene: Layer-by-layer epitaxy via chemical vapor deposition. Nano Lett. 2011, 11, 1106–1110.
DOI Google Scholar
[31]

Liu, L. X.; Zhou, H. L.; Cheng, R.; Yu, W. J.; Liu, Y.; Chen, Y.; Shaw, J.; Zhong, X.; Huang, Y.; Duan, X. F. High-yield chemical vapor deposition growth of high-quality large-area AB-stacked bilayer graphene. ACS Nano 2012, 6, 8241–8249.
DOI Google Scholar
[32]

Ta, H. Q.; Perello, D. J.; Duong, D. L.; Han, G. H.; Gorantla, S.; Nguyen, V. L.; Bachmatiuk, A.; Rotkin, S. V.; Lee, Y. H.; Rümmeli, M. H. Stranski-krastanov and volmer-weber CVD growth regimes to control the stacking order in bilayer graphene. Nano Lett. 2016, 16, 6403–6410.
DOI Google Scholar
[33]

Fang, W. J.; Hsu, A. L.; Song, Y.; Birdwell, A. G.; Amani, M.; Dubey, M.; Dresselhaus, M. S.; Palacios, T.; Kong, J. Asymmetric growth of bilayer graphene on copper enclosures using low-pressure chemical vapor deposition. ACS Nano, 2014, 8, 6491–6499.
DOI Google Scholar
[34]

Hao, Y. F.; Wang, L.; Liu, Y. Y.; Chen, H.; Wang, X. H.; Tan, C.; Nie, S.; Suk, J. W.; Jiang, T. F.; Liang, T. F. et al. Oxygen-activated growth and bandgap tunability of large single-crystal bilayer graphene. Nat. Nanotechnol. 2016, 11, 426–431.
DOI Google Scholar
[35]

Jiang, B.; Liang, D. D.; Sun, Z. T.; Ci, H.; Liu, B. Z.; Gao, Y. Q.; Shan, J. Y.; Yang, X. Q.; Rümmeli, M. H.; Wang, J. X. et al. Toward direct growth of ultra‐flat graphene. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2022, 32, 2200428.
DOI Google Scholar
[36]

Ge, X. M.; Zhang, Y. H.; Chen, L. X.; Zheng, Y. H.; Chen, Z. Y.; Liang, Y. J.; Hu, S. K.; Li, J.; Sui, Y.; Yu, G. H. et al. Mechanism of SiO x particles formation during CVD graphene growth on Cu substrates. Carbon 2018, 139, 989–998.
DOI Google Scholar
[37]

Wang, Z. J.; Weinberg, G.; Zhang, Q.; Lunkenbein, T.; Klein-Hoffmann, A.; Kurnatowska, M.; Plodinec, M.; Li, Q.; Chi, L. F.; Schloegl, R. et al. Direct observation of graphene growth and associated copper substrate dynamics by in situ scanning electron microscopy. ACS Nano 2015, 9, 1506–1519.
DOI Google Scholar
[38]

Xu, X. Z.; Qiao, R. X.; Liang, Z. H.; Zhang, R.; Zeng, F. K.; Cui, G. L.; Zhang, X. W.; Zou, D. X.; Guo, Y.; Liu, C. et al. Towards intrinsically pure graphene grown on copper. Nano Res. 2022, 15, 919–924.
DOI Google Scholar
[39]

Nguyen, V. L.; Shin, B. G.; Duong, D. L.; Kim, S. T.; Perello, D.; Lim, Y. J.; Yuan, Q. H.; Ding, F.; Jeong, H. Y.; Shin, H. S. et al. Seamless stitching of graphene domains on polished copper (111) foil. Adv. Mater. 2015, 27, 1376–1382.
DOI Google Scholar
[40]

Xu, X. Z.; Zhang, Z. H.; Dong, J. C.; Yi, D.; Niu, J. J.; Wu, M. H.; Lin, L.; Yin, R. K.; Li, M. Q.; Zhou, J. Y. et al. Ultrafast epitaxial growth of metre-sized single-crystal graphene on industrial Cu foil. Sci. Bull. 2017, 62, 1074–1080.
DOI Google Scholar
[41]

Sun, L. Z.; Wang, Z. H.; Wang, Y. C.; Zhao, L.; Li, Y. L. Z.; Chen, B. H.; Huang, S. H.; Zhang, S. S.; Wang, W. D.; Pei, D. et al. Hetero-site nucleation for growing twisted bilayer graphene with a wide range of twist angles. Nat. Commun. 2021, 12, 2391.
DOI Google Scholar
[42]

Wei, W.; Zhang, C.; Li, H. B.; Pan, J. Q.; Tan, Z.; Li, Y. J.; Cui, Y. In situ growth dynamics of uniform bilayer graphene with different twisted angles following layer-by-layer mode. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2022, 13, 11201–11207.
DOI Google Scholar
File
12274_2023_6348_MOESM1_ESM.pdf (1.9 MB)
Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 03 September 2023
Revised: 27 October 2023
Accepted: 17 November 2023
Published: 19 January 2024
Issue date: May 2024

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2024

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (Nos. 2020B1515020043 and 2023A1515012743), Guangdong Major Project of Basic and Applied Basic Research (No. 2021B0301030002), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 12322406, 52102043, 61905215, 52025023, 51991342 and 52021006), the Key R&D Program of Guangdong Province (No. 2020B010189001), the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2022YFA1403500), the Pearl River Talent Recruitment Program of Guangdong Province (No. 2019ZT08C321), and the Key Project of Science and Technology of Guangzhou (No. 202201010383). We thank the National Supercomputer Centre in Tianjin for computing support.

Return