Substrate-assisted nucleation of ultra-thin dielectric layers on graphene by atomic layer deposition

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to improve the wetting of Al2O3 thin films on graphene by using substrate-induced polar traps to enhance nucleation during atomic layer deposition, enabling high-quality dielectric layers without defects.

Contribution

It introduces a substrate-assisted nucleation technique that significantly improves dielectric film wetting on graphene without introducing point defects.

Findings

Enhanced nucleation density on graphene via polar traps

Successful transfer of high-quality Al2O3/graphene stacks

No point defects introduced during deposition

Abstract

We report on a large improvement in the wetting of Al2O3 thin films grown by un-seeded atomic layer deposition on monolayer graphene, without creating point defects. This enhanced wetting is achieved by greatly increasing the nucleation density through the use of polar traps induced on the graphene surface by an underlying metallic substrate. The resulting Al2O3/graphene stack is then transferred to SiO2 by standard methods.