Project plan

Independent project in Engineering Physics

Jimmy Ly, 8 april 2011
Uppsala university

Suggested project title

Measurements of electrical properties of pristine and defectgraphene in a gas atmosphere

Background
Last year, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Andre Geim and KonstatinNovoselov for their
groundbreaking experiments with graphene and thereby showing that carbon as a one-atom-thick
material possesses extraordinary properties. Graphene was recently discovered and is arranged as a
two dimensional sheet of carbon atom hexagons (see figure 1). As of today, graphene is not only the
thinnest material known, but also the strongest. It conducts electricity as well as copper and
outperforms all other materials in terms of heat conduction.
Graphene is a relatively unexplored material and there is still more research to be made, but there
are many different areas for practical applications, e.g., transistors, touch screens, solar cells and
composite materials.

Figure 1. Schematic of a graphene layer

Contents
Build a gas sensor set-up on a probe-station for measurements of graphene. For this, graphene has
to be exfoliated mechanically and contacted with micro-electrical contacts which connect the
graphene flake to gold pads. In this project, we will put the graphene devices in the probe-station,
which itself will be in a gas-container. Before starting the I-V measurements, test-gated I-V
measurements will be carried out to verify the quality of the graphene and current annealing may be
needed to improve the quality. Then, I-V curves will be taken observing electrical properties of
graphene under inert (Ar or N2) and other gases (O2, CO,…to be defined in next weeks). The same
measurements will be repeated on ion beam damaged graphene. As a second part of this project,
differential current measurements will be set-up and similar electrical measurement cycles as
described above will be carried out.

Not mentioned in this description are possible surface treatments like gentle plasma cleaning. Where
needed, surface cleaning protocols might be developed. In the first few weeks, a literature study will
be done, consisting of reading various theses published within the related field of work.
Tasks

 Exfoliation and first analysis of exfoliated graphene

 Light optical microscopy, possibly atomic force microscopy.
 Set-up of gas measurements and differential current measurements:
 Simple programming of measurement equipment and electrical characterization of
contacted graphene
 Electrical measurements (I-V and back-gated) of contacted pristine and defect graphene
inside the probe station, with and without gaseous atmosphere. Test measurements will be
carried out on nanoelectrode/nanoparticle bridge platform.
Timeline

Week
1 Literature review
2-4 Fabrication (exfoliation and characterization) of graphene samples.
Connecting, programming and testing electrical equipment.
4-6 Electrical characterization of contacted graphene and ion irradiation of contacted
graphene.
7-8 Measurements in gaseous environments.
9-10 Extra time. Summarizing results and writing report.

Handledare
Hassan Jafri, doktorand vid avdelningen för tillämpad materialvetenskap
hassan.jafri@angstrom.uu.se, 070-9367466

Ämnesgranskare
Klaus Leifer, professor vid avdelningen för tillämpad materialvetenskap
klaus.leifer@angstrom.uu.se, 070-425 09 81