Reverse degradation of nickel graphene junction by hydrogen annealing

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that hydrogen annealing at 300°C can reverse the degradation of nickel-graphene junctions caused by air exposure and interfacial oxidation, restoring interface quality for electronic devices.

Contribution

It introduces hydrogen annealing as an effective method to recover nickel-graphene interfaces degraded by oxidation, improving device reliability.

Findings

Hydrogen annealing restores interface quality after air-induced degradation.

Interfacial oxidation creates a tunneling barrier in nickel-graphene junctions.

Hydrogen treatment effectively reverses degradation at 300°C.

Abstract

Metal contacts are fundamental building components for graphene based electronic devices and their properties are greatly influenced by interface quality during device fabrication, leading to resistance variation. Here we show that nickel graphene junction degrades after air exposure, due to interfacial oxidation, thus creating a tunneling barrier. Most importantly, we demonstrate that hydrogen annealing at moderate temperature (300 0C) is an effective technique to reverse the degradation.