Graphene at high bias: cracking, layer by layer sublimation and fusing

Abstract

Graphene and few-layer graphene at high bias expose a wealth of phenomena due to the high temperatures reached. With in-situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) we observe directly how the current modifies the structure, and vice versa. In some samples, cracks propagate from the edges of the flakes, leading to the formation of narrow constrictions or to nanometer spaced gaps after breakdown. In other samples we find layer-by-layer evaporation of few-layer graphene, which could be exploited for the controlled production of single layer graphene from multi-layered samples. Surprisingly, we even find that two pieces of graphene that overlap can heal out at high bias and form one continuous sheet. These findings open up new avenues to structure graphene for specific device applications.

References in corpus (13)

• Two Dimensional Atomic Crystals
• Ultrahigh electron mobility in suspended graphene
• Energy Band Gap Engineering of Graphene Nanoribbons
• High-Field Electrical Transport in Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes
• Electron-Phonon Scattering in Metallic Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes
• Photo-Thermoelectric Effect at a Graphene Interface Junction
• Current-induced cleaning of graphene
• High-Field, Quasi-Ballistic Transport in Short Carbon Nanotubes
• Room-temperature gating of molecular junctions using few-layer graphene nanogap electrodes
• Quantized conductance of a suspended graphene nanoconstriction
• Geometrical Dependence of High-Bias Current in Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes
• In-situ electronic characterization of graphene nanoconstrictions fabricated in a transmission electron microscope
• Fabrication of large addition energy quantum dots in graphene

Cited by in corpus (11)

• Bright visible light emission from graphene
• Gate defined zero- and one-dimensional confinement in bilayer graphene
• Understanding the catalyst-free transformation of amorphous carbon into graphene by current-induced annealing
• Side-gate leakage and field emission in all-graphene field effect transistors on SiO2/Si substrate
• Quantum Dots at Room Temperature carved out from Few-Layer Graphene
• Lattice Expansion in Seamless Bi layer Graphene Constrictions at High Bias
• Fabrication of hybrid molecular devices using multi-layer graphene break junctions
• Phonon excitation and instabilities in biased graphene nanoconstrictions
• Unruh effect in vacua with anisotropic scaling: Applications to multilayer graphene
• Current-induced atomic forces in gated graphene nanoconstrictions
• Spin signatures in the electrical response of graphene nanogaps