Observation of a Snap-Through Instability in Graphene

Abstract

We examine the competition between adhesive and bending energies for few-layered graphene samples placed on rigid, microscale-corrugated substrates. Using atomic force microscopy, we show that the graphene undergoes a sharp "snap-through" transition as a function of layer thickness, where the material transitions between conforming to the substrate and lying flat on top of the substrate. By utilizing the critical snap-through thickness in an elasticity model for the FLG's bending, we extract a value for graphene-surface adhesion energy that is larger than expected for van der Waals forces.

8 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Intrinsic and Extrinsic Performance Limits of Graphene Devices on SiO2
• High-Resolution Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Imaging of Mesoscopic Graphene Sheets on an Insulating Surface
• Electrostatic interactions between graphene layers and their environment
• Morphology and flexibility of graphene and few-layer graphene on various substrates
• Pinning of a two-dimensional membrane on top of a patterned substrate: the case of graphene
• Determining Graphene Adhesion via Substrate-regulated Morphology of Graphene

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Capillary condensation under atomic-scale confinement
• Adhesion mechanics of graphene membranes
• Strain Modulation of Graphene by Nanoscale Substrate Curvatures: A Molecular View
• Mechanical Control of Graphene on Engineered Pyramidal Strain Arrays
• Observation of Pull-in Instability in Graphene Membranes under Interfacial Forces
• Princess and the Pea at the nanoscale: Wrinkling and delamination of graphene on nanoparticles
• The sensitivity of Graphene 'Snap-through' to substrate geometry
• Adhesion mechanics of graphene on textured substrates
• Graphene Transport Mediated by Micropatterned Substrates