Reversible Tuning of the Electronic Properties of Graphene via Controlled Exposure to Electron Beam Irradiation and Annealing

摘要

Graphene reveals many extraordinary properties including extremely high room temperature carrier mobility and intrinsic thermal conductivity. Understanding how to controllably modify graphene's properties is essential for its proposed applications. Here we report on a method for tuning the electrical properties of graphene via electron beam irradiation. It was observed that single-layer graphene is highly susceptible to the low-energy electron beams. We demonstrated that by controlling the irradiation dose one can change, by desired amount, the carrier mobility, shift the charge neutrality point, increase the resistance at the minimum conduction point, induce the "transport gap" and achieve current saturation in graphene. The change in graphene properties is due to defect formation on the graphene surface and in the graphene lattice. The changes are reversible by annealing until some critical irradiation dose is reached.