Fabrication and Electric Field Dependent Transport Measurements of Mesoscopic Graphite Devices

TL;DR

This paper introduces a micromechanical method to extract thin graphite samples and investigates their electric field-dependent conductance, revealing significant gate voltage modulation and boundary scattering effects in mesoscopic devices.

Contribution

The study presents a novel micromechanical technique for preparing ultra-thin graphite samples and explores their transport properties under electric fields.

Findings

Strong conductance modulation with gate voltage in thin samples

Increased boundary scattering in thinner graphite devices

Temperature-dependent resistivity indicates boundary effects

Abstract

We have developed a unique micromechanical method to extract extremely thin graphite samples. Graphite crystallites with thicknesses ranging from 10 - 100 nm and lateral size $\sim$ 2 $\mu$m are extracted from bulk. Mesoscopic graphite devices are fabricated from these samples for electric field dependent conductance measurements. Strong conductance modulation as a function of gate voltage is observed in the thinner crystallite devices. The temperature dependent resistivity measurements show more boundary scattering contribution in the thinner graphite samples.