Rapid fabrication of graphene on dielectric substrates via solid-phase processes

To unleash the full potential of graphene in functional devices, high-quality graphene sheets and patterns are frequently required to be deposited on dielectric substrates. However, it generally calls for post-growth catalyst etching and graphene transfer steps in currently existing approaches, which are very time consuming and costly for fabricating functional graphene devices. We developed a rapid and cost-effective growth method to achieve the graphene formation directly on various kinds of dielectric substrates via a novel solid-phase transformation mechanism based on Ni/C thin films. High-quality graphene was obtained uniformly on whole surface of wafers with a controlled number of graphene layers. The monolayer graphene, as obtained, exhibits a low sheet resistance of about 50 Ω/sq and a high optical transmittance of 95.8% at 550 nm. Graphene patterns were successfully fabricated simply by either conventional photolithography or laser direct writing techniques. Various graphene patterns, including texts, spirals, line arrays, and even large-scale integrated circuit patterns, with a feature line width of 800 nm and a low sheet resistance of 205 ohm/sq, were achieved. The developed method provides a facile and cost-effective way to fabricate complex and high-quality graphene patterns directly on target substrates, which opens a door for fabricating various advanced optoelectronic devices.