Fabrication of Si(111) crystalline thin film on graphene by aluminum-induced crystallization

Abstract

We report the fabrication of a Si(111) crystalline thin film on graphene by the aluminum-induced crystallization (AIC) process. The AIC process of Si(111) on graphene is shown to be enhanced compared to that on an amorphous SiO2 substrate, resulting in a more homogeneous Si(111) thin film structure as revealed by X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy measurements. Raman measurements confirm that the graphene is intact throughout the process, retaining its characteristic phonon spectrum without any appearance of the D peak. A red-shift of Raman peaks, which is more pronounced for the 2D peak, is observed in graphene after the crystallization process. It is found to correlate with the red-shift of the Si Raman peak, suggesting an epitaxial relationship between graphene and the adsorbed AIC Si(111) film with both the graphene and Si under tensile strain.

Metal-induced layer exchange of group IV materials

“…Once LE is completed, LE does not occur again because the resulting semiconductor layer is completely crystalline. When the substrate is crystalline and lattice-matched to the semiconductor layer, epitaxial growth can be induced by tuning the growth conditions [35][36][37].…”