Breakdown of Universal Scaling for Nanometer-Sized Bubbles in Graphene

Authors

• Renan Villarreal, Quantum Solid State Physics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
• Pin-Cheng Lin, Quantum Solid State Physics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
• Fahim Faraji, Research group PLASMANT, Department of Chemistry and Departement Natuurkunde, Universiteit Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium
• Nasim Hassani, Department of Physics, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Tehran, Iran
• Harsh Bana, Quantum Solid State Physics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
• Zviadi Zarkua, Quantum Solid State Physics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
• Maya N. Nair, CUNY Advanced Science Research CenterFollow
• Hung-Chieh Tsai, imec vzw (Interuniversitair Micro- Electronica Centrum), Department of Chemistry, Division of Molecular Design and Synthesis, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
• Manuel Auge, Institute of Physics, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
• Felix Junge, Institute of Physics, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
• Hans C. Hofsaess, Institute of Physics, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
• Stefan De Gendt, imec vzw (Interuniversitair Micro-Electronica Centrum), Department of Chemistry, Division of Molecular Design and Synthesis, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
• Steven De Feyter, Department of Chemistry, Division of Molecular Imaging and Photonics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
• Steven Brems, imec vzw (Interuniversitair Micro-Electronica Centrum), Leuven, Belgium
• E. Harriet Åhlgren, Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
• Erik C. Neyts, Research group PLASMANT, Department of Chemistry, Universiteit Antwerpen (UIA), Antwerpen, Belgium
• Lucian Covaci, Departement Natuurkunde, Universiteit Antwerpen (UIA), Antwerpen, Belgium
• François M. Peeters, Departement Natuurkunde, Universiteit Antwerpen (UIA), Antwerpen, Belgium
• Mehdi Neek-Amal, Department of Physics, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Tehran, Iran
• Lino M. C. Pereira, Quantum Solid State Physics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2021

Abstract

We report the formation of nanobubbles on graphene with a radius of the order of 1 nm, using ultralow energy implantation of noble gas ions (He, Ne, Ar) into graphene grown on a Pt(111) surface. We show that the universal scaling of the aspect ratio, which has previously been established for larger bubbles, breaks down when the bubble radius approaches 1 nm, resulting in much larger aspect ratios. Moreover, we observe that the bubble stability and aspect ratio depend on the substrate onto which the graphene is grown (bubbles are stable for Pt but not for Cu) and trapped element. We interpret these dependencies in terms of the atomic compressibility of the noble gas as well as of the adhesion energies between graphene, the substrate, and trapped atoms.

Comments

This article was originally published in NANO Letters, available at https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c02470

This work is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).