Abstract
When two-dimensional graphene is exfoliated from three-dimensional highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG), ripples or corrugations always exist due to the intrinsic thermal fluctuations. Surface-grown graphenes also exhibit wrinkles, which are larger in dimension and are thought to be caused by the difference in thermal expansion coefficients between graphene and the underlying substrate in the cooling process after high temperature growth. For further characterization and applications, it is necessary to transfer the surface-grown graphenes onto dielectric substrates, and other wrinkles are generated during this process. Here, we focus on the wrinkles of transferred graphene and demonstrate that the surface morphology of the growth substrate is the origin of the new wrinkles which arise in the surface-to-surface transfer process; we call these morphology-induced wrinkles. Based on a careful statistical analysis of thousands of atomic force microscopy (AFM) topographic data, we have concluded that these wrinkles on transferred few-layer graphene (typically 1–3 layers) are determined by both the growth substrate morphology and the transfer process. Depending on the transfer medium and conditions, most of the wrinkles can be either erased or preserved. Our work suggests a new route for graphene engineering involving structuring the growth substrate and tailoring the transfer process.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Landau, L.; Lifshits, E.; Pitaevskii, L. Statistical Physics, Part I; Pergamon: Oxford, 1980.
Novoselov, K. S.; Geim, A. K.; Morozov, S. V.; Jiang, D.; Zhang, Y.; Dubonos, S. V.; Grigorieva, I. V.; Firsov, A. A. Electric field effect in atomically thin carbon films. Science 2004, 306, 666–669.
Geim, A.; Novoselov, K. The rise of graphene. Nat. Mater. 2007, 6, 183–191.
Lui, C. H.; Liu, L.; Mak, K. F.; Flynn, G. W.; Heinz, T. F. Ultraflat graphene. Nature 2009, 462, 339–341.
Katsnelson, M.; Geim, A. Electron scattering on microscopic corrugations in graphene. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 2008, 366, 195–204.
Morozov, S. V.; Novoselov, K. S.; Katsnelson, M. I.; Schedin, F.; Ponomarenko, L. A.; Jiang, D.; Geim, A. K. Strong suppression of weak localization in graphene. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2006, 97, 016801.
Martin, J.; Akerman, N.; Ulbricht, G.; Lohmann, T.; Smet, J. H.; Von Klitzing, K.; Yacoby, A. Observation of electron-hole puddles in graphene using a scanning single-electron transistor. Nat. Phys. 2008, 4, 144–148.
Elias, D.; Nair, R.; Mohiuddin, T.; Morozov, S.; Blake, P.; Halsall, M.; Ferrari, A.; Boukhvalov, D.; Katsnelson, M.; Geim, A. Control of graphene’s properties by reversible hydrogenation: Evidence for graphane. Science 2009, 323, 610–613.
Kim, K.; Zhao, Y.; Jang, H.; Lee, S.; Kim, J.; Ahn, J.; Kim, P.; Choi, J.; Hong, B. Large-scale pattern growth of graphene films for stretchable transparent electrodes. Nature 2009, 457, 706–710.
Reina, A.; Jia, X.; Ho, J.; Nezich, D.; Son, H.; Bulovic, V.; Dresselhaus, M.; Kong, J. Large area, few-layer graphene films on arbitrary substrates by chemical vapor deposition. Nano Lett. 2009, 9, 30–35.
Li, X. S.; Cai, W. W.; An, J. H.; Kim, S.; Nah, J.; Yang, D. X.; Piner, R.; Velamakanni, A.; Jung, I.; Tutuc, E.; Banerjee, S. K.; Colombo, L.; Ruoff, R. S. Large-area synthesis of high-quality and uniform graphene films on copper foils. Science 2009, 324, 1312–1314.
Geim, A. Graphene: Status and prospects. Science 2009, 324, 1530–1534.
Liu, N.; Fu, L.; Dai, B.; Yan, K.; Liu, X.; Zhao, R.; Zhang, Y.; Liu, Z. Universal segregation growth approach to wafer-size graphene from non-noble metals. Nano Lett. 2011, 11, 297–303.
Guinea, F.; Katsnelson, M. I.; Vozmediano, M. A. H. Midgap states and charge inhomogeneities in corrugated graphene. Phys. Rev. B 2008, 77, 075422.
Obraztsov, A.; Obraztsova, E.; Tyurnina, A.; Zolotukhin, A. Chemical vapor deposition of thin graphite films of nanometer thickness. Carbon 2007, 45, 2017–2021.
Reina, A.; Son, H. B.; Jiao, L. Y.; Fan, B.; Dresselhaus, M. S.; Liu, Z. F.; Kong, J. Transferring and identification of single- and few-layer graphene on arbitrary substrates. J. Phys. Chem. C 2008, 112, 17741–17744.
Liang, X.; Fu, Z.; Chou, S. Y. Graphene transistors fabricated via transfer-printing in device active-areas on large wafer. Nano Lett. 2007, 7, 3840–3844.
Reina, A.; Thiele, S.; Jia, X.; Bhaviripudi, S.; Dresselhaus, M.; Schaefer, J.; Kong, J. Growth of large-area single- and bi-layer graphene by controlled carbon precipitation on polycrystalline Ni surfaces. Nano Res. 2009, 2, 509–516.
Thiele, S.; Reina, A.; Healey, P.; Kedzierski, J.; Wyatt, P.; Hsu, P.; Keast, C.; Schaefer, J.; Kong, J. Engineering polycrystalline Ni films to improve thickness uniformity of the chemical-vapor-deposition-grown graphene films. Nanotechnology 2010, 21, 015601.
Copel, M.; Reuter, M. C.; Kaxiras, E.; Tromp, R. M. Surfactants in epitaxial growth. Phys. Rev. Lett. 1989, 63, 632–635.
Li, X.; Cai, W.; Colombo, L.; Ruoff, R. Evolution of graphene growth on Ni and Cu by carbon isotope labeling. Nano Lett. 2009, 9, 4268–4272.
Zhang, Z.; Duan, Q.; Wang, Z. Micro-mechanisms of fatigure damage in copper crystals. Acta Metall. Sin. 2005, 41, 1143–1149.
N’Diaye, A. T.; van Gastel, R.; Martinez-Galera, A. J.; Coraux, J.; Hattab, H.; Wall, D.; Meyer zu Heringdorf, F. J.; Horn-von Hoegen, M.; Gomez-Rodriguez, J. M.; Poelsema, B.; Busse, C.; Michely, T. In situ observation of stress relaxation in epitaxial graphene. New J. Phys. 2009, 11, 113056.
Chae, S. J.; Gunes, F.; Kim, K. K.; Kim, E. S.; Han, G. H.; Kim, S. M.; Shin, H. J.; Yoon, S. M.; Choi, J. Y.; Park, M. H.; Yang, C. W.; Pribat, D.; Lee, Y. H. Synthesis of large-area graphene layers on poly-nickel substrate by chemical vapor deposition: Wrinkle formation. Adv. Mater. 2009, 21, 2328–2333.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
These authors contributed equally to this work
Electronic supplementary material
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Liu, N., Pan, Z., Fu, L. et al. The origin of wrinkles on transferred graphene. Nano Res. 4, 996–1004 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-011-0156-3
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-011-0156-3