Lateral homoepitaxial growth of graphene

Abstract

In this paper, we present electron diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) evidence that graphene can be laterally homoepitaxially grown from homo-seeds. We demonstrate that exfoliated thin graphite flakes and CVD-grown graphene grains can both serve as seed crystals. Raman spectra indicate that the epitaxial graphene is 1–2 layers thick, regardless of seed thickness. A two-step growth procedure is developed to epitaxially synthesize large graphene grains. Lateral homoepitaxial growth makes it a reality to duplicate the structure and increase the size of small high-quality graphene crystals.