Enhancing graphene–metal contact using graphene square flake array sandwich structure

Abstract

A novel graphene–metal contact structure that an extra layer of graphene square flake (GSF) array sandwiched between the graphene channel and the metal to reduce contact resistance is designed for the first time. This structure reduces the contact resistance (R_c) by 74.3% for single layer graphene. For a graphene channel length of 3 millimeters and width of 10 μm an average R_c of 485 Ω μm is obtained. Using this method, even a small R_c of lower than 100 Ω μm was observed for some samples. The dangling bonds at the edges of the sandwiched GSF array are used to both surely decrease the contact resistance and prevent etching of the graphene channel from the attenuating transmission current.