Self-assembly and electron-beam-induced direct etching of suspended graphene nanostructures

TL;DR

This paper presents a method for transferring single-layer graphene onto substrates, creating blistered structures that can be flattened using electron-beam-induced etching, enabling precise nanostructure fabrication.

Contribution

It introduces a transfer-printing technique for suspended graphene and demonstrates electron-beam-induced etching for direct shaping of nanostructures.

Findings

Successful transfer of residue-free single-layer graphene

Creation of blistered, suspended graphene structures

Precise flattening of graphene using electron-beam etching

Abstract

We report on suspended single-layer graphene deposition by a transfer-printing approach based on polydimethylsiloxane stamps. The transfer printing method allows the exfoliation of graphite flakes from a bulk graphite sample and their residue-free deposition on a silicon dioxide substrate. This deposition system creates a blistered graphene surface due to strain induced by the transfer process itself. Single-layer-graphene deposition and its "blistering" on the substrate are demonstrated by a combination of Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and atomic-force microscopy measurements. Finally, we demonstrate that blister-like suspended graphene are self-supporting single-layer structures and can be flattened by employing a spatially-resolved direct-lithography technique based on electron-beam induced etching.