X-ray radiation effects in multilayer epitaxial graphene

J. Hicks (1) , Rakesh Arora (2) , E. Kenyon (2) , P.S. Chakraborty (2) , H. Tinkey (1) , J. Hankinson (1) , Claire Berger (3) , Walt A. de Heer (1) , E. Conrad (1) , J.D. Cressler (4)

1 School of Physics [Atlanta]
2 School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
3 NEEL - QuantECA - Circuits électroniques quantiques Alpes
4 ECE GeorgiaTech - School of Electrical and Computer Engineering - Georgia Insitute of Technology

We characterize multilayer graphene grown on C-face SiC before and after exposure to a total ionizing dose (TID) of 12 Mrad(SiO2) using a 10 keV X-ray source. While we observe the partial peeling of the top graphene layer and the appearance of a modest Raman D-peak, we find that the electrical characteristics (mobility, sheet resistivity, free carrier concentration) of the material are mostly unaffected by radiation exposure. Combined with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) data showing numerous carbon-oxygen bonds after irradiation, we conclude that the primary damage mechanism is through surface etching from reactive oxygen species created by the X-rays.

Mots clés: graphene; X-ray

Domaines: Systèmes mésoscopiques et effet Hall quantique [cond-mat.mes-hall]

J. Hicks, Rakesh Arora, E. Kenyon, P.S. Chakraborty, H. Tinkey, et al.. X-ray radiation effects in multilayer epitaxial graphene. Applied Physics Letters, 2011, 99, pp.232102. ⟨10.1063/1.3665953⟩. ⟨hal-01002866⟩