Silane-Catalyzed Fast Growth of Large Single-Crystalline Graphene on Hexagonal Boron Nitride

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that silane acts as an effective gaseous catalyst, significantly accelerating the growth of large, high-quality single-crystalline graphene on hexagonal boron nitride, enabling direct device-ready synthesis.

Contribution

Introduction of silane as a gaseous catalyst to achieve fast, large-domain graphene growth on dielectric substrates via CVD, improving quality and scalability.

Findings

Graphene growth rate increased to ~1 um/min

Graphene domains up to 20 um achieved

Room temperature mobility of 20,000 cm2/Vs

Abstract

The direct growth of high-quality, large single-crystalline domains of graphene on a dielectric substrate is of vital importance for applications in electronics and optoelectronics. Traditionally, graphene domains grown on dielectrics are typically only ~1 nm with a growth rate of ~1 nm/min or less, the main reason is the lack of a catalyst. Here we show that silane, serving as a gaseous catalyst, is able to boost the graphene growth rate to ~1 um/min, thereby promoting graphene domains up to 20 um in size to be synthesized via chemical vapor deposition on hexagonal boron nitride. Hall measurements show that the mobility of the sample reaches 20,000 cm2/Vs at room temperature, which is among the best for CVD-grown graphene. Combining the advantages of both catalytic CVD and the ultra-flat dielectric substrate, gaseous catalyst-assisted CVD paves the way for synthesizing high-quality graphene for device applications while avoiding the transfer process.