Scalable control of graphene growth on 4H-SiC C-face using decomposing silicon nitride masks

摘要

Patterning of graphene is key for device fabrication. We report a way toincrease or reduce the number of layers in epitaxial graphene grown on theC-face (000-1) of silicon carbide by the deposition of a 120 nm to 150nm-thicksilicon nitride (SiN) mask prior to graphitization. In this process we findthat areas covered by a Si-rich SiN mask have one to four more layers thannon-masked areas. Conversely N-rich SiN decreases the thickness by threelayers. In both cases the mask decomposes before graphitization is completed.Graphene grown in masked areas show good quality as observed by Ramanspectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and transport data. By tailoringthe growth parameters selective graphene growth and sub-micron patterns havebeen obtained.