Disorder-free sputtering method on graphene

TL;DR

This paper introduces a disorder-free sputtering method for depositing materials on graphene by flipping the substrate and increasing argon pressure, reducing damage across various sputtering techniques.

Contribution

The study presents a novel approach to sputtering that minimizes graphene damage, enabling cleaner material deposition for advanced electronic applications.

Findings

Damage to graphene is significantly reduced using the proposed method.

The method is effective across dc, rf, and reactive sputtering processes.

Graphene quality is preserved during material deposition.

Abstract

Deposition of various materials onto graphene without causing any disorder is highly desirable for graphene applications. Especially, sputtering is a versatile technique to deposit various metals and insulators for spintronics, and indium tin oxide to make transparent devices. However, the sputtering process causes damage to graphene because of high energy sputtered atoms. By flipping the substrate and using a high Ar pressure, we demonstrate that the level of damage to graphene can be reduced or eliminated in dc, rf, and reactive sputtering processes.