Large area fabrication of graphene nanoribbons by wetting transparency-assisted block copolymer lithography

Publication date: 10 February 2017
Source:Polymer, Volume 110
Author(s): Reika Katsumata, Maruthi Nagavalli Yogeesh, Helen Wong, Sunshine X. Zhou, Stephen M. Sirard, Tao Huang, Richard D. Piner, Zilong Wu, Wei Li, Alvin L. Lee, Matthew C. Carlson, Michael J. Maher, Deji Akinwande, Christopher J. Ellison
Patterning graphene into nanoribbons (graphene nanoribbons, GNR) allows for tunability in the emerging fields of plasmonic devices in the mid-infrared and terahertz regime. However, the fabrication processes of GNR arrays for plasmonic devices often include a low-throughput electron beam lithography step that cannot be easily scaled to large areas. In this study, we developed a GNR fabrication method using block copolymer (BCP) lithography that takes advantage of the wetting transparency of graphene. One major advantage of this method is that the self-assembled domains of the polystyrene-block-poly(methyl methacrylate) BCP are oriented perpendicularly directly on top of the graphene where they can later serve as an etch mask. Large area (cm² scale, 3 μm × 3 μm defect-free area) 13–51 nm wide GNR arrays were successfully fabricated using this scalable protocol. This wetting transparency-assisted GNR fabrication method could be useful for high-throughput production of various plasmonic devices, including biosensors, and photodetectors.

Graphical abstract

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