Low temperature growth of graphene using inductively-coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition

This paper investigates the effect of processing parameters on the growth of graphene at a temperature of 300 °C using an inductively-coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition system. Graphene films were grown on Cu films under CH4/H2/Ar plasma and then subsequently transferred to different substrates. The effects of the plasma power, deposition time and CH4 flow rate on the characteristics of the graphene films were systematically investigated. The results show that AB-stacked bilayer graphene films can be grown at low flow rates of CH4 and low plasma powers for depositions as short as 10 s. The bilayer graphene films exhibited surface enhanced Raman scattering effects and enabled detection of a reporter molecule presenting an example application. Low temperature growth at short processing times may enable realization of the potential uses of graphene in a wide range of applications at practical costs with relaxed constraints on the materials and processes associated with high temperatures.