Spectroscopic characterization of graphene films grown on Pt (111) surface by chemical vapor deposition of ethylene

TL;DR

This study characterizes graphene films grown on Pt(111) via CVD of ethylene, revealing their structural properties, orientations, and stress states, and compares their quality to exfoliated graphene.

Contribution

It provides detailed spectroscopic and microscopic analysis of graphene on Pt(111), highlighting growth-induced stress and orientation, and compares film quality with previous methods.

Findings

Presence of single-layer graphene regions.

Two orientations of graphene sheets on Pt(111).

Graphene exhibits compressive stress after growth.

Abstract

This work reports the peculiar properties of a graphene film prepared by the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of ethylene in high vacuum on a well oriented and carefully cleaned Pt(111) crystal surface maintained at high temperature. In-situ and ex-situ characterization techniques (low energy electron diffraction, high resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and Raman micro-spectroscopy) used here indicate the prevalence of single layer regions and the presence of two different orientations of the graphene sheets with respect to the Pt(111) substrate. In most of the deposited area evidence is found of a compressive stress for the graphene lattice, as a net result of the growth process on a metal substrate. This graphene film grown on Pt(111) exhibits a lower degree of order and of homogeneity with respect to the exfoliated graphene on Si/SiO2, as it is found generally for graphene on metals, but several characterization techniques indicates a better quality than in previous deposition experiments on the same metal substrate.