Facile technique for the removal of metal contamination from graphene

Wells, G.H.; Hunt, M.R.C.; Hopf, T; Vassilevski, K.V.; Escobedo-Cousin, E.; Horsfall, A.B.; Goss, J.P.; O'Neill, A.

doi:10.1116/1.4928422

Facile technique for the removal of metal contamination from graphene

Wells, G.H.; Hunt, M.R.C.; Hopf, T; Vassilevski, K.V.; Escobedo-Cousin, E.; Horsfall, A.B.; Goss, J.P.; O'Neill, A.

Authors

G.H. Wells

Dr Michael Hunt m.r.c.hunt@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

T Hopf

K.V. Vassilevski

E. Escobedo-Cousin

A.B. Horsfall

J.P. Goss

A. O'Neill

Abstract

Metal contamination deposited on few-layer graphene (3 ± 1 monolayers) grown on SiC(0001) was successfully removed from the surface, using low cost adhesive tape. More than 99% of deposited silver contamination was removed from the surface via peeling, causing minimal damage to the graphene. A small change in the adhesion of graphene to the SiC(0001) substrate was indicated by changes observed in pleat defects on the surface; however, atomic resolution images show the graphene lattice remains pristine. Thin layers of contamination deposited via an electron gun during Auger electron spectroscopy/low energy electron diffraction measurements were also found to be removable by this technique. This contamination showed similarities to “roughened” graphene previously reported in the literature.

Citation

Wells, G., Hunt, M., Hopf, T., Vassilevski, K., Escobedo-Cousin, E., Horsfall, A., …O'Neill, A. (2015). Facile technique for the removal of metal contamination from graphene. Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B, 33(5), Article 051802. https://doi.org/10.1116/1.4928422

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jul 24, 2015
Online Publication Date	Aug 11, 2015
Publication Date	Sep 1, 2015
Deposit Date	Aug 13, 2015
Publicly Available Date	Jan 10, 2016
Journal	Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B
Print ISSN	2166-2746
Electronic ISSN	2166-2754
Publisher	American Institute of Physics
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	33
Issue	5
Article Number	051802
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1116/1.4928422

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Copyright Statement
© 2015 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Wells, G. H. and Hunt, M. R. C. and Hopf, T and Vassilevski, K. V. and Escobedo-Cousin, E. and Horsfall, A. B. and Goss, J. P. and O'Neill, A. (2015) 'Facile technique for the removal of metal contamination from graphene.', Journal of vacuum science & technology B: nanotechnology and microelectronics : materials, processing, measurement, and phenomena., 33 (5). 051802 and may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1116/1.4928422