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Vol. 8 No. 4 (2016)

Toward High Carrier Mobility and Low Contact Resistance: Laser Cleaning of PMMA Residues on Graphene Surfaces

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-016-0093-5
Yuehui Jia
Materials Physics Laboratory, State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of China
Xin Gong
School of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen 518055, People’s Republic of China
Pei Peng
Key Laboratory of Microelectronic Devices and Circuits (MOE), Institute of Microelectronics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of China
Zidong Wang
Key Laboratory of Microelectronic Devices and Circuits (MOE), Institute of Microelectronics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of China
Zhongzheng Tian
Key Laboratory of Microelectronic Devices and Circuits (MOE), Institute of Microelectronics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of China
Liming Ren
Key Laboratory of Microelectronic Devices and Circuits (MOE), Institute of Microelectronics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of China
Yunyi Fu
Key Laboratory of Microelectronic Devices and Circuits (MOE), Institute of Microelectronics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of China
Han Zhang
Materials Physics Laboratory, State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of China

Corresponding Author: Yunyi Fu

yyfu@pku.edu.cn

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 8 No. 4 (2016), Article Number: 336-346

Abstract

Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is widely used for graphene transfer and device fabrication. However, it inevitably leaves a thin layer of polymer residues after acetone rinsing and leads to dramatic degradation of device performance. How to eliminate contamination and restore clean surfaces of graphene is still highly demanded. In this paper, we present a reliable and position-controllable method to remove the polymer residues on graphene films by laser exposure. Under proper laser conditions, PMMA residues can be substantially reduced without introducing defects to the underlying graphene. Furthermore, by applying this laser cleaning technique to the channel and contacts of graphene field-effect transistors (GFETs), higher carrier mobility as well as lower contact resistance can be realized. This work opens a way for probing intrinsic properties of contaminant-free graphene and fabricating high-performance GFETs with both clean channel and intimate graphene/metal contact.

Keywords

Graphene PMMA residues Laser exposure Carrier mobility Contact resistance
Jia, Yuehui, Xin Gong, Pei Peng, Zidong Wang, Zhongzheng Tian, Liming Ren, Yunyi Fu, and Han Zhang. 2016. “Toward High Carrier Mobility and Low Contact Resistance: Laser Cleaning of PMMA Residues on Graphene Surfaces”. Nano-Micro Letters 8 (4):336-46. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-016-0093-5.
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