Bandgap engineering of single layer graphene by randomly distributed nanoparticles

In this paper, we have proposed and experimentally demonstrated engineering the bandgap of semi-metal zero bandgap single layer chemical vapor deposited graphene by decorating with randomly distributed nanoparticles. Decoration with two types of nanoparticles was investigated: zinc oxide nano-seed grown by sonication of zinc acetate dihydrate, and gold nanoparticles grown by thermal annealing of sputtered gold thin film. The proximity of nanoparticles and graphene break graphene’s sublattice symmetry and opens-up a bandgap. The grown nanoparticles were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The single layer graphene before and after decoration was characterized with Raman spectroscopy. The bandgap was engineered by simply adjusting the nanoparticle size and density, and the introduced bandgap was measured from the slope of temperature dependent conductivity characteristics. Graphene with significant bandgap introduced by the proposed methods could be used for devices intended for high speed digital and logic applications.