Implanting germanium into graphene

Abstract

Incorporating heteroatoms into the graphene lattice may be used to tailor its electronic, mechanical and chemical properties. Direct substitutions have thus far been limited to incidental Si impurities and P, N and B dopants introduced using low-energy ion implantation. We present here the heaviest impurity to date, namely ${}^{74}$Ge${}^{+}$ ions implanted into monolayer graphene. Although sample contamination remains an issue, atomic resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy imaging and quantitative image simulations show that Ge can either directly substitute single atoms, bonding to three carbon neighbors in a buckled out-of-plane configuration, or occupy an in-plane position in a divacancy. First principles molecular dynamics provides further atomistic insight into the implantation process, revealing a strong chemical effect that enables implantation below the graphene displacement threshold energy. Our results show that heavy atoms can be implanted into the graphene lattice, pointing a way towards advanced applications such as single-atom catalysis with graphene as the template.

20 pages, 5 figures

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• Doping transition-metal atoms in graphene for atomic-scale tailoring of electronic, magnetic, and quantum topological properties
• Electron-beam Introduction of Heteroatomic Pt-Si Structures in Graphene
• Graphene Lattices with Embedded Transition-Metal Atoms and Tunable Magnetic Anisotropy Energy: Implications for Spintronic Devices
• Substitutional Si impurities in monolayer hexagonal boron nitride
• Buckling and metastability in membranes with dilation arrays
• Indirect measurement of the carbon adatom migration barrier on graphene
• Direct visualization of the 3D structure of silicon impurities in graphene
• Top-down fabrication of atomic patterns in twisted bilayer graphene
• Electronic structural critique of interesting thermal and optical properties of C${}_{17}$Ge germagraphene
• Creation and Microscopic Origins of Single-Photon Emitters in Transition Metal Dichalcogenides and Hexagonal Boron Nitride