Effects of Annealing Parameters on Epitaxial Graphene on SiC Substrates

Abstract

The effects of annealing on epitaxial graphene on SiC substrates with various conditions are investigated. Results show that high pressure hydrogen atmosphere is more effective to decouple the epitaxial graphene from SiC substrate than that of a relative lower pressure process. Besides, the characteristic 2D-peak of graphene in Raman spectra disappeared with an annealing temperature 1000 °C, which means that the epitaxial graphene layer was decomposed in this condition. The study also shows that the decomposition of graphene can be effectively suppressed by increasing carbon vapor partial pressure through introducing ethylene during high pressure hydrogen annealing at 1000 °C. And the epitaxial graphene is successfully transferred to quasi free standing graphene by the annealing with an appropriate flow of ethylene.