Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.
Nanotechnology. 2013 Jun 28;24(25):255704. doi: 10.1088/0957-4484/24/25/255704. Epub 2013 May 30.
At a single atom thick, it is challenging to distinguish graphene from its substrate using conventional techniques. In this paper we show that friction force microscopy (FFM) is a simple and quick technique for identifying graphene on a range of samples, from growth substrates to rough insulators. We show that FFM is particularly effective for characterizing graphene grown on copper where it can correlate the graphene growth to the three-dimensional surface topography. Atomic lattice stick-slip friction is readily resolved and enables the crystallographic orientation of the graphene to be mapped nondestructively, reproducibly and at high resolution. We expect FFM to be similarly effective for studying graphene growth on other metal/locally crystalline substrates, including SiC, and for studying growth of other two-dimensional materials such as molybdenum disulfide and hexagonal boron nitride.
在单层原子的厚度下，使用传统技术很难将石墨烯与其衬底区分开来。在本文中，我们表明摩擦力显微镜（FFM）是一种简单快捷的技术，可以识别各种样品上的石墨烯，从生长衬底到粗糙的绝缘体。我们表明 FFM 对于在铜上生长的石墨烯特别有效，它可以将石墨烯的生长与三维表面形貌相关联。原子晶格的粘滑摩擦很容易分辨，并能够非破坏性、可重复且高分辨率地绘制石墨烯的结晶方向。我们预计 FFM 对于研究在其他金属/局部结晶衬底（包括 SiC）上生长的石墨烯以及研究其他二维材料（如二硫化钼和六方氮化硼）的生长同样有效。
