Abstract
Graphene is widely regarded as an important new electronic material with interesting two-dimensional electron gas properties. Not only that, but graphene is widely considered to be an important new material for large-scale integrated electronic devices that may eventually even succeed silicon. In fact, there are countless publications that demonstrate the amazing applications potential of graphene.
In order to realize graphene electronics, a platform is required that is compatible with large-scale electronics processing methods. It was clear from the outset that graphene grown epitaxially on silicon carbide substrates was exceptionally well suited as a platform for graphene-based electronics, not only because the graphene sheets are grown directly on electronics-grade silicon carbide (an important semiconductor in its own right), but also because these sheets are oriented with respect to the semiconductor. Moreover, the extremely high temperatures involved in production assure essentially defect-free and contamination-free materials with well-defined interfaces.
Epitaxial graphene on silicon carbide is not a unique material, but actually a class of materials. It is a complex structure consisting of a reconstructed silicon carbide surface, which, for planar hexagonal silicon carbide, is either the silicon- or the carbon-terminated face, an interfacial carbon rich layer, followed by one or more graphene layers. Consequently, the structure of graphene films on silicon carbide turns out to be a rich surface-science puzzle that has been intensively studied and systematically unravelled with a wide variety of surface science probes. Moreover, the graphene films produced on the carbon-terminated face turn out to be rotationally stacked, resulting in unique and important structural and electronic properties.
Finally, in contrast to essentially all other graphene production methods, epitaxial graphene can be grown on structured silicon carbide surfaces to produce graphene nanostructured without patterning the graphene itself. This method produces graphene nanostructures with atomically smooth edges that ultimately determine the transport properties of these structures.
The coherent collection of papers in this special issue of Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics provides a snapshot of the current state of the art, presented by leading experts, highlighting various aspects of the science and technology of epitaxial graphene. This collection systematically addresses the production of epitaxial graphene on the two polar faces of silicon carbide, as well as the structural and electronic properties of the graphene films. Special attention is paid to the rapidly emerging field of chemically modified graphene, which promises to introduce a bandgap into the electronic structure of graphene, which is critical for many electronic applications. Also presented are methods to incorporate properties of the silicon carbide itself, as well as advanced methods to produce high-quality graphene and graphene nanostructures using structured growth methods.