Modification of Graphene Properties due to Electron-Beam Irradiation

TL;DR

This study investigates how low and medium energy electron-beam irradiation causes disorder and structural transformation in graphene, affecting its lattice properties and implications for device fabrication.

Contribution

It provides detailed Raman analysis of lattice disorder in graphene induced by electron-beam irradiation, revealing amorphization pathways.

Findings

Electron-beam irradiation induces a strong D band indicating lattice damage.

Graphene transforms from crystalline to amorphous with increasing radiation dose.

Results impact graphene characterization and fabrication processes using electron microscopy.

Abstract

The authors report micro-Raman investigation of changes in the single and bilayer graphene crystal lattice induced by the low and medium energy electron-beam irradiation (5 and 20 keV). It was found that the radiation exposures results in appearance of the strong disorder D band around 1345 1/cm indicating damage to the lattice. The D and G peak evolution with the increasing radiation dose follows the amorphization trajectory, which suggests graphene's transformation to the nanocrystalline, and then to amorphous form. The results have important implications for graphene characterization and device fabrication, which rely on the electron microscopy and focused ion beam processing.