Thickness-Dependent Morphologies of Gold on N-Layer Graphenes

TL;DR

This paper investigates how gold's morphology on n-layer graphenes varies with the number of layers, enabling high-throughput identification of graphene layer thicknesses beyond Raman spectroscopy.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to distinguish n-layer graphenes based on gold morphology, revealing thickness-dependent interactions and surface properties.

Findings

Gold morphology varies with graphene layer number

Technique allows high-resolution identification of graphene layers

Potential for detecting mixed-layer graphene samples

Abstract

We report that gold thermally deposited onto n-layer graphenes interacts differently with these substrates depending on the number layer, indicating the different surface properties of graphenes. This results in thickness-dependent morphologies of gold on n-layer graphenes, which can be used to identify and distinguish graphenes with high throughput and spatial resolution. This technique may play an important role in checking if n-layer graphenes are mixed with different layer numbers of graphene with a smaller size, which cannot be found by Raman spectra. The possible mechanisms for these observations are discussed.