Abstract
The direct observation of the domain size and defect distribution in a graphene film is important for the development of electronic applications involving graphene. Here we report a promising method for observing graphene domains grown by chemical vapour deposition. The unavoidable development of crack or pinhole defects during the growth and transfer processes is visualized using a liquid crystal layer. Liquid crystal molecules align anisotropically with respect to the graphene domains and exhibit distinct birefringence properties that can be used to image the graphene domains. This approach is useful for visualizing the crack distributions and their generation process in graphene films under external strain. This type of simple observation method provides an effective route to evaluating the quality and reliability of graphene sheets for use in various electronic devices.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 3484 |
| Journal | Nature communications |
| Volume | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 Mar 24 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by the Basic Research Program (2012R1A2A1A03006049 and 2009-0083540) and Global Frontier Research Center for Advanced Soft Electronics (2013M3A6A5073170) through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning. We thank Professor Jiwoong Park and Lola Brown at Cornell University for valuable comments to transmission electron microscopy measurement.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Chemistry(all)
- Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
- Physics and Astronomy(all)