Graphene Films Prepared Using Energetic Physical Vapor Deposition

Carbon films were energetically deposited onto copper foil using the physical vapor deposition technique filtered cathodic vacuum arc. Raman spectroscopy and x-ray absorption spectroscopy showed that high quality graphene films of uniform thickness can be deposited onto copper foil at temperatures of 850 °C. The films can be prepared at high deposition rates (∼1 nm/min) and were comparable to graphene films grown at 1050 °C using chemical vapor deposition. This lower growth temperature was made possible by the energetic carbon flux which assisted the arrangement of carbon atoms into graphene layers on the Cu growth surface. Floating substrate potential was found to produce the highest quality graphene and the addition of hydrogen gas during film growth resulted in more defective films.