Strain-engineered graphene grown on hexagonal boron nitride by molecular beam epitaxy

Graphene grown by high temperature molecular beam epitaxy on hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) forms continuous domains with dimensions of order 20 μm, and exhibits moiré patterns with large periodicities, up to ~30 nm, indicating that the layers are highly strained. Topological defects in the moiré pat...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Summerfield, Alex, Davies, Andrew, Cheng, Tin S., Korolkov, Vladimir V., Cho, YongJin, Mellor, Christopher J., Foxon, C. Thomas, Khlobystov, Andrei N., Watanabe, Kenji, Taniguchi, Takashi, Eaves, Laurence, Novikov, Sergei V., Beton, Peter H.
Format: Article
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34735/
_version_ 1848794924111101952
author Summerfield, Alex
Davies, Andrew
Cheng, Tin S.
Korolkov, Vladimir V.
Cho, YongJin
Mellor, Christopher J.
Foxon, C. Thomas
Khlobystov, Andrei N.
Watanabe, Kenji
Taniguchi, Takashi
Eaves, Laurence
Novikov, Sergei V.
Beton, Peter H.
author_facet Summerfield, Alex
Davies, Andrew
Cheng, Tin S.
Korolkov, Vladimir V.
Cho, YongJin
Mellor, Christopher J.
Foxon, C. Thomas
Khlobystov, Andrei N.
Watanabe, Kenji
Taniguchi, Takashi
Eaves, Laurence
Novikov, Sergei V.
Beton, Peter H.
author_sort Summerfield, Alex
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Graphene grown by high temperature molecular beam epitaxy on hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) forms continuous domains with dimensions of order 20 μm, and exhibits moiré patterns with large periodicities, up to ~30 nm, indicating that the layers are highly strained. Topological defects in the moiré patterns are observed and attributed to the relaxation of graphene islands which nucleate at different sites and subsequently coalesce. In addition, cracks are formed leading to strain relaxation, highly anisotropic strain fields, and abrupt boundaries between regions with different moiré periods. These cracks can also be formed by modification of the layers with a local probe resulting in the contraction and physical displacement of graphene layers. The Raman spectra of regions with a large moiré period reveal split and shifted G and 2D peaks confirming the presence of strain. Our work demonstrates a new approach to the growth of epitaxial graphene and a means of generating and modifying strain in graphene.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T19:23:55Z
format Article
id nottingham-34735
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T19:23:55Z
publishDate 2016
publisher Nature Publishing Group
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-347352020-05-04T17:34:40Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34735/ Strain-engineered graphene grown on hexagonal boron nitride by molecular beam epitaxy Summerfield, Alex Davies, Andrew Cheng, Tin S. Korolkov, Vladimir V. Cho, YongJin Mellor, Christopher J. Foxon, C. Thomas Khlobystov, Andrei N. Watanabe, Kenji Taniguchi, Takashi Eaves, Laurence Novikov, Sergei V. Beton, Peter H. Graphene grown by high temperature molecular beam epitaxy on hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) forms continuous domains with dimensions of order 20 μm, and exhibits moiré patterns with large periodicities, up to ~30 nm, indicating that the layers are highly strained. Topological defects in the moiré patterns are observed and attributed to the relaxation of graphene islands which nucleate at different sites and subsequently coalesce. In addition, cracks are formed leading to strain relaxation, highly anisotropic strain fields, and abrupt boundaries between regions with different moiré periods. These cracks can also be formed by modification of the layers with a local probe resulting in the contraction and physical displacement of graphene layers. The Raman spectra of regions with a large moiré period reveal split and shifted G and 2D peaks confirming the presence of strain. Our work demonstrates a new approach to the growth of epitaxial graphene and a means of generating and modifying strain in graphene. Nature Publishing Group 2016-03-01 Article PeerReviewed Summerfield, Alex, Davies, Andrew, Cheng, Tin S., Korolkov, Vladimir V., Cho, YongJin, Mellor, Christopher J., Foxon, C. Thomas, Khlobystov, Andrei N., Watanabe, Kenji, Taniguchi, Takashi, Eaves, Laurence, Novikov, Sergei V. and Beton, Peter H. (2016) Strain-engineered graphene grown on hexagonal boron nitride by molecular beam epitaxy. Scientific Reports, 6 . 22440/1-22440/9. ISSN 2045-2322 http://www.nature.com/articles/srep22440 doi:10.1038/srep22440 doi:10.1038/srep22440
spellingShingle Summerfield, Alex
Davies, Andrew
Cheng, Tin S.
Korolkov, Vladimir V.
Cho, YongJin
Mellor, Christopher J.
Foxon, C. Thomas
Khlobystov, Andrei N.
Watanabe, Kenji
Taniguchi, Takashi
Eaves, Laurence
Novikov, Sergei V.
Beton, Peter H.
Strain-engineered graphene grown on hexagonal boron nitride by molecular beam epitaxy
title Strain-engineered graphene grown on hexagonal boron nitride by molecular beam epitaxy
title_full Strain-engineered graphene grown on hexagonal boron nitride by molecular beam epitaxy
title_fullStr Strain-engineered graphene grown on hexagonal boron nitride by molecular beam epitaxy
title_full_unstemmed Strain-engineered graphene grown on hexagonal boron nitride by molecular beam epitaxy
title_short Strain-engineered graphene grown on hexagonal boron nitride by molecular beam epitaxy
title_sort strain-engineered graphene grown on hexagonal boron nitride by molecular beam epitaxy
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34735/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34735/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34735/