No abstract

The graphene/LiNbO3 structure exists in an interfacial stress-free state at the temperature at which the graphene was transferred onto the LiNbO3 substrate surface. Coupling of a surface acoustic wave with this structure revealed drastic changes in the properties of the propagating elastic wave around the critical temperature of the stress-free state. Three states, namely, tensile stress, stress-free, and compressive stress, were successively observed at the surface of the LiNbO3 substrate as the temperature was increased through the critical point. The interfacial stress increased prior to the occurrence of sliding friction and approached a constant value when the frictional force exceeded the van der Waals interaction between the graphene and LiNbO3. Consequently, the interfacial stress exhibited a step-like temperature dependence around the critical temperature of the stress-free state. The results obtained in this study indicate that the temperature used to prepare graphene layers on a substrate is a crucial parameter owing to the instability of the electrical and mechanical properties of the graphene/substrate in the vicinity of this temperature. Therefore, in the fabrication of graphene-based electronic devices, room temperature should be avoided during the preparation of the graphene layers on the substrate.

A traveling electric field in surface acoustic wave was introduced into the graphene/SiO2/Si sample in the temperature range of 15 K to 300 K. The coupling behaviors between the sample and the electric field were analyzed using two parameters, the intensity attenuation and time delay of the traveling-wave. The attenuation originates from Joule heat of the moving carriers, and the delay of the traveling-wave was due to electrical resistances of the fixed charge and the moving carriers with low mobility in the sample. The attenuation of the external electric field was observed in both Si crystal and graphene films in the temperature range. A large attenuation around 190 K, which depends on the strength of external electric field, was confirmed for the Si crystal. But, no significant temperature and field dependences of the attenuation in the graphene films were detected. On the other hand, the delay of the traveling-wave due to ionic scattering at low temperature side was observed in the Si crystal, but cannot be detected in the films of the mono-, bi- and penta-layer graphene with high conductivities. Also, it was indicated in this study that skin depth of the graphene film was less than thickness of two graphene atomic layers in the temperature range.

The current-voltage characteristics of the C70 solid with hexagonal closed-packed structures were measured in the temperature range of 250–450 K. The current-voltage characteristics can be described as a temporary expedient by a cubic polynomial of the voltage, i=av3+bv2+cv+d. Moreover, the Meyer-Neldel temperature of the C70 solid was confirmed to be 310 K, at which a linear relationship between the current and voltage was observed. Also, at temperatures below the Meyer-Neldel temperature, the current increases with increasing voltage. On the other hand, at temperatures above the Meyer-Neldel temperature a negative differential conductivity effect was observed at high voltage side. The negative differential conductivity was related to the electric field and temperature effects on the mobility of charge carrier, which involve two variations in the carrier concentration and the activation energy for carrier hopping transport.

Electrical transport properties of the nano-graphene oxide were investigated by measuring current-voltage characteristics in the wide temperature range of 15 K∼450 K. The n-GO is composed of nanometer-sized intact graphene-like sp2 domains embedded in the sp3 matrix which acts as a charge transport barrier between the highly conductive sp2 domains. The oxygen in the n-GO has the concentration of 4.43 at% in the form of oxygen functional groups. Below the conduction band, four discontinuous localized states with the activation energies of 1.92 meV, 3.27 meV, 5.54 meV, and 6.58 meV were observed. These activation energies decrease with decreasing oxygen concentration and increasing external electric field in the n-GO material. Moreover, we found that the direct tunneling of charge carrier through the sp3 barrier was a dominant transport mechanism for the n-GO material. Also, unlike the activation energy of charge carrier, the transport barrier was independent of both the concentration of the oxygen functional groups and external electric field. The transport barrier was mainly determined by insulation property of the sp3 structure.