The environment of graphene probed by electrostatic force microscopy

Abstract

We employ electrostatic force microscopy to study the electrostatic environment of graphene sheets prepared with the micro-mechanical exfoliation technique. We detect the electric dipole of residues left from the adhesive tape during graphene preparation, as well as the dipole of water molecules adsorbed on top of graphene. Water molecules form a dipole layer that can generate an electric field as large as 10^9 V/m. We expect that water molecules can significantly modify the electrical properties of graphene devices.

to be published in Applied Physics Letters

References in corpus (6)

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• Two Dimensional Atomic Crystals
• Atomic Structure of Graphene on SiO2
• A self-consistent theory for graphene transport
• Current-induced cleaning of graphene
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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Intrinsic Response of Graphene Vapor Sensors
• First-principles studies of water adsorption on graphene: The role of the substrate
• Electrostatic interactions between graphene layers and their environment
• Morphology and flexibility of graphene and few-layer graphene on various substrates
• Inducing energy gaps in graphene monolayer and bilayer
• Rippling of Graphene
• Models of electron transport in single layer graphene