Uniformly Nanopatterned Graphene Field-Effect Transistors with Enhanced Properties

Duyoung Choi, Cihan Kuru, Youngjin Kim, Gunwoo Kim, Taekyoung Kim, Renkun Chen, Sungho Jin

We have successfully fabricated and characterized highly uniform nanopatterned graphene (NPG). Thin anodized aluminum oxide nanomask was prepared by facile self-assembly technique without using polymer buffer layer, which was utilized as a direct-contact template for oxygen plasma etch to produce near-periodic, small-neck-width NPG. The NPG exhibits a homogeneous mesh structure with an average neck width as small as ~11 nm. The highly uniform 11-nm neck width creates a quantum confinement in NPG, which has led to a record bandgap opening of ~200 meV in graphene for the given level of neck width. Electronic characterization of single-layer NPG field-effect transistors (FETs) was performed, which demonstrated a high on-off switching ratio. We found that the NPG allows for experimental confirmation of the relationship between electrical conductance and bandgap. This work also demonstrates that our direct-contact, self-assembled mask lithography is a pathway for low-cost, high-throughput, large-scale nanomanufacturing of graphene nanodevices.