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Site- and alignment-controlled growth of graphene nanoribbons from nickel nanobars

Nature Nanotechnology volume 7, pages 651–656 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

Graphene nanoribbons combine the unique electronic and spin properties of graphene1,2 with a transport gap that arises from quantum confinement and edge effects3,4,5,6. This makes them an attractive candidate material for the channels of next-generation transistors. Nanoribbons can be made in a variety of ways, including lithographic7,8,9, chemical10,11,12 and sonochemical6 approaches, the unzipping of carbon nanotubes13,14,15,16,17, the thermal decomposition of SiC18 and organic synthesis19. However, the reliable site and alignment control of nanoribbons with high on/off current ratios20 remains a challenge. Here we control the site and alignment of narrow (∼23 nm) graphene nanoribbons by directly converting a nickel nanobar into a graphene nanoribbon using rapid-heating plasma chemical vapour deposition. The nanoribbons grow directly between the source and drain electrodes of a field-effect transistor without transfer, lithography and other postgrowth treatments, and exhibit a clear transport gap (58.5 meV), a high on/off ratio (>104) and no hysteresis. Complex architectures, including parallel and radial arrays of supported and suspended ribbons, are demonstrated. The process is scalable and completely compatible with existing semiconductor processes, and is expected to allow integration of graphene nanoribbons with silicon technology.

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Figure 1: Direct conversion of a Ni nanobar to a graphene nanoribbon by RH-PCVD.
Figure 2: Raman spectroscopy of graphene nanoribbons and various architectures of graphene nanoribbons.
Figure 3: Cross-section TEM of graphene nanoribbon.
Figure 4: Electrical transport properties of graphene nanoribbons.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI (23740405, 21654084). The authors thank K. Tohji and K. Motomiya for their help with the EDX measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electronic Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8579, Japan

    Toshiaki Kato & Rikizo Hatakeyama

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  1. Toshiaki Kato
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  2. Rikizo Hatakeyama
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Contributions

T.K. and R.H. conceived and designed the experiments. T.K. performed the experiments and analysed the data. T.K. and R.H. co-wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Toshiaki Kato.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Kato, T., Hatakeyama, R. Site- and alignment-controlled growth of graphene nanoribbons from nickel nanobars. Nature Nanotech 7, 651–656 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2012.145

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