In the present study, we have examined the interaction between a suspension of graphene in dimethylformamide and an aqueous solution of hydrofluoric acid, which was found to result in partial fluorination of suspension flakes. A considerable decrease in the thickness and lateral size of the graphene flakes (up to 1-5 monolayers in thickness and 100-300 nm in diameter) with increasing duration of fluorination treatment is found to be accompanied by a simultaneous transition of the flakes from the conducting to the insulating state. Smooth and uniform insulating films with a roughness of ∼2 nm and thicknesses down to 20 nm were deposited from the suspension on silicon. The electrical and structural properties of the films suggest their use as insulating elements in thin-film nano- and microelectronic device structures. In particular, it was found that the films prepared from the fluorinated suspension display rather high breakdown voltages (field strength of (1-3) × 10(6) V cm(-1)), ultralow densities of charges in the film and at the interface with the silicon substrate in metal-insulator-semiconductor structures (∼(1-5) × 10(10) cm(-2)). Such excellent characteristics of the dielectric film can be compared only to well-developed SiO2 layers. The films from the fluorinated suspension are cheap, practically feasible and easy to produce.

Metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structures were fabricated on n-type variband HgCdTe with Al 2 O 3 deposited by plasma-enhanced ALD. Early stages of the deposition process performed at 120 °C were studied by means of XPS for the first time. Partial decomposition and conversion of HgCdTe native oxide presented on the surface were observed as well as mercury atoms out-diffusion from the near-surface region. The width of alumina band gap and the offsets of Al 2 O 3 /HgCdTe bands were determined. Capacitance-voltage characteristics reveal a negative fixed charge with the density of ∼1 × 10 12 cm −2 and wide hysteresis depending on the voltage sweep range. An additional intermediate layer lowering an apparent permittivity value of the MIS insulator layer is found. By varying the thickness of the insulator of the samples, the permittivity of Al 2 O 3 was extracted to be 7.6. The estimated Al 2 O 3 properties correspond to the oxygen-deficient amorphous phase of alumina.

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