Breakdown of Universal Scaling for Nanometer-Sized Bubbles in Graphene

Author(s)
Renan Villarreal, Pin-Cheng Lin, Fahim Faraji, Nasim Hassani, Harsh Bana, Zviadi Zarkua, Maya N. Nair, Hung-Chieh Tsai, Manuel Auge, Felix Junge, Hans C. Hofsaess, Stefan De Gendt, Steven De Feyter, Steven Brems, E. Harriet Ahlgren, Erik C. Neyts, Lucian Covaci, Francois M. Peeters, Mehdi Neek-Amal, Lino M. C. Pereira
Abstract

We report the formation of nanobubbles on graphene with a radius of the order of 1 nm, using ultralow energy implantation of noble gas ions (He, Ne, Ar) into graphene grown on a Pt(111) surface. We show that the universal scaling of the aspect ratio, which has previously been established for larger bubbles, breaks down when the bubble radius approaches 1 nm, resulting in much larger aspect ratios. Moreover, we observe that the bubble stability and aspect ratio depend on the substrate onto which the graphene is grown (bubbles are stable for Pt but not for Cu) and trapped element. We interpret these dependencies in terms of the atomic compressibility of the noble gas as well as of the adhesion energies between graphene, the substrate, and trapped atoms.

Organisation(s)
Physics of Nanostructured Materials
External organisation(s)
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, University of Antwerp, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University (SRTTU), City University of New York, Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Journal
Nano Letters
Volume
21
Pages
8103-8110
No. of pages
8
ISSN
1530-6984
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c02470
Publication date
10-2021
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103018 Materials physics
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Condensed Matter Physics, Mechanical Engineering, Bioengineering, General Chemistry, General Materials Science
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/1719f3d8-a3a8-44e0-a12f-761f4a59e67e