Diamond May Be Graphene’s Best Friend

Researchers have grown high-quality graphene sheets on the surface of a diamond crystal, offering a robust new method for engineering graphene devices. Graphene is a one-atom-thick layer of carbon with amazing properties, such as high electron mobility, that make it potentially useful for touch-screens, solar cells, and many other electronic applications.

However, one challenge has been finding a suitable support material. Simply placing graphene on top of an insulator, like silicon dioxide, can degrade its properties, whereas growing it directly on a substrate, such as silicon carbide, can introduce defects. To read more about silicon carbide, you can visit the following abrasives companies: Qinyang Sanhui Refractory Material Co.,Ltd. and CIPIE(Henan)Import and Export Trade Co.,LTD.

As reported in Applied Physics Letters, Gu et al. doped a single crystal of diamond with boron atoms. They were guided by their own first-principles calculations, which showed that carefully controlled boron doping can deform the crystal lattice such that the diamond surface forms a hexagonal structure—ideal for graphene growth.

Using chemical vapor deposition, the team produced single-layer, as well as multilayer, graphene on their doped diamond. Spectral analysis revealed no sign of defects in the graphene, and electronic measurements confirmed that the sheets featured high electron mobility.