The Effect Of Oxygen Plasma Etching On Graphene’s Mechanical And Electrical Properties

Graphene is an allotrope of carbon in the form of a two-dimensional,atomic-scale,hexagonal lattice in which one atom forms each vertex.Graphene consists of a single-atom-thick hexagonal lattice of sp2-bonded carbon atoms..Oxygen plasma etching on multilayer graphene has been taken to study the effects on the mechanical and electrical properties through changing the energy gap between conduction and valence bands.Oxygen plasma etching has become a topic of intense research in the past years.This process is isotropic that particles attack the wafer from all angles.As well,plasma treatment,especially oxygen plasma treatment with high chemical reactivity to carbon has become an effective way for the modification of carbon-based materials to alter their nano-structures and properties.In this study,we explore the effect of oxygen plasma etching of chemical vapor deposited(CVD)graphene on Si/Si O2 substrate over different durations.The durations of oxygen plasma etching were selected as 10 seconds,30 seconds,60 seconds and180 seconds,individually.Atomic force microscopy was used to explore the morphology and defects on multilayer graphene.Influence of oxygen plasma etching on mechanical properties of graphene was discussed.By comparing four cases of the etching duration,we analyzed the etching effect on electrical properties of graphene taking advantage of the electrostatic force microscopy module of AFM and ferroelectric analyzer.Based on the experimental results,we discussed how oxygen plasma interacted with graphene and how the electrical properties were affected.These findings are valuable for studying the effects of plasma etching on graphene and provide helpful suggestions in modification of graphene properties.