Implanting Germanium into Graphene

Tripathi, Mukesh; Markevich, Alexander; B�ttger, Roman; Facsko, Stefan; Besley, Elena; Kotakoski, Jani; Susi, Toma

Abstract

Incorporating heteroatoms into the graphene lattice may be used to tailor its electronic, mechanical and chemical properties, although directly observed substitutions have thus far been limited to incidental Si impurities and P, N and B dopants introduced using low-energy ion implantation. We present here the heaviest impurity to date, namely 74Ge+ ions implanted into monolayer graphene. Although sample contamination remains an issue, atomic resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy imaging and quantitative image simulations show that Ge can either directly substitute single atoms, bonding to three carbon neighbors in a buckled out-of-plane configuration, or occupy an in-plane position in a divacancy. First-principles molecular dynamics provides further atomistic insight into the implantation process, revealing a strong chemical effect that enables implantation below the graphene displacement threshold energy. Our results demonstrate that heavy atoms can be implanted into the graphene lattice, pointing a way toward advanced applications such as single-atom catalysis with graphene as the template.

Citation

Tripathi, M., Markevich, A., Böttger, R., Facsko, S., Besley, E., Kotakoski, J., & Susi, T. (2018). Implanting Germanium into Graphene. ACS Nano, 12(5), 4641-4647. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.8b01191

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 4, 2018
• Online Publication Date: May 4, 2018
• Publication Date: May 22, 2018
• Deposit Date: Mar 26, 2020
• Journal: ACS Nano
• Print ISSN: 1936-0851
• Electronic ISSN: 1936-086X
• Publisher: American Chemical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 12
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 4641-4647
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.8b01191
• Keywords: General Engineering; General Physics and Astronomy; General Materials Science
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3018624
• Publisher URL: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.8b01191