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▲ [19p-E308-17] Direct Coating of graphene on AFM probe by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition
Keywords:Graphene, AFM, TEM
Atomic force microscope (AFM) is one of the versatile tools used for nanoscale characterization and fabrication. AFM probe are usually made of Si cantilever with metal coating for the conductivity. Tip of the cantilever are sharp (few nm) which is essential for the ultra-high resolution. However, due to continuous use, AFM tip suffers from the problem of friction leading to eroding of tip and losing of sharpness and conductivity. Graphene due to its very high thermal and electrical conductivity along with mechanical strength is an excellent material for coating AFM tips. There are various methods for coating AFM tips with graphene such as thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) with use of catalytic metals, transfer of CVD graphene to the tip and transfer of liquid phase graphene flakes. In this work we present single step catalyst free plasma enhanced CVD process [1] for large area graphene deposition on tip of AFM probe.
Commercially available AFM probe (Olympus AC240TS) are used for graphene fabrication. Acetylene (C2H2) and (Ar+H2) was used as precursor and carrier gas respectively. Microwave surface-wave plasma CVD with the power of 1000 W was used with graphene growth time of 10 sec at 500oC. As synthesized graphene was characterized using high resolution transmission electron microcopy (HRTEM) to confirm the layer and quality of the graphene. Fig. 1(a) presents Low mag TEM image showing uniform deposition of graphene film around the AFM tip. Fig. 1(b) shows the high mag TEM image taken around the rectangular area of the Fig. 1(a). Highly crystalline graphene film with 5 to 8 layers is observed around the Si probe. Our method clearly shows the unique method of direct fabrication of graphene coated AFM probe which is scalable to larger industrial scale
Commercially available AFM probe (Olympus AC240TS) are used for graphene fabrication. Acetylene (C2H2) and (Ar+H2) was used as precursor and carrier gas respectively. Microwave surface-wave plasma CVD with the power of 1000 W was used with graphene growth time of 10 sec at 500oC. As synthesized graphene was characterized using high resolution transmission electron microcopy (HRTEM) to confirm the layer and quality of the graphene. Fig. 1(a) presents Low mag TEM image showing uniform deposition of graphene film around the AFM tip. Fig. 1(b) shows the high mag TEM image taken around the rectangular area of the Fig. 1(a). Highly crystalline graphene film with 5 to 8 layers is observed around the Si probe. Our method clearly shows the unique method of direct fabrication of graphene coated AFM probe which is scalable to larger industrial scale