Abstract
An individual suspended graphene sheet was connected to a scanning tunneling microscopy probe inside a transmission electron microscope, and Joule heated to high temperatures. At high temperatures and under electron beam irradiation, the few-layer graphene sheets were removed layer-by-layer in the viewing area until a monolayer graphene was formed. The layer-by-layer peeling was initiated at vacancies in individual graphene layers. The vacancies expanded to form nanometer-sized holes, which then grew along the perimeter and propagated to both the top and bottom layers of a bilayer graphene joined by a bilayer edge. The layer-by-layer peeling was induced by atom sublimation caused by Joule heating and facilitated by atom displacement caused by high-energy electron irradiation, and may be harnessed to control the layer thickness of graphene for device applications.
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Huang, J.Y., Qi, L. & Li, J. In situ imaging of layer-by-layer sublimation of suspended graphene. Nano Res. 3, 43–50 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-010-1006-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-010-1006-4