Direct visualization of large-area graphene domains and boundaries by optical birefringency

DW Kim, YH Kim, HS Jeong, HT Jung - Nature nanotechnology, 2012 - nature.com
Nature nanotechnology, 2012nature.com
The boundaries between domains in single-layer graphene,,, strongly influence its
electronic properties,,,,,,,. However, existing approaches for domain visualization, which are
based on microscopy and spectroscopy,,,,,, are only effective for domains that are less than
a few micrometres in size. Here, we report a simple method for the visualization of arbitrarily
large graphene domains by imaging the birefringence of a graphene surface covered with
nematic liquid crystals. The method relies on a correspondence between the orientation of …
Abstract
The boundaries between domains in single-layer graphene,,, strongly influence its electronic properties,,,,,,,. However, existing approaches for domain visualization, which are based on microscopy and spectroscopy,,,,,, are only effective for domains that are less than a few micrometres in size. Here, we report a simple method for the visualization of arbitrarily large graphene domains by imaging the birefringence of a graphene surface covered with nematic liquid crystals. The method relies on a correspondence between the orientation of the liquid crystals and that of the underlying graphene, which we use to determine the boundaries of macroscopic domains.
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