Ion-Beam Irradiation Effect in the Growth Process of Graphene on Silicon Carbide-on-Insulator Substrates

We investigated the effect of ion-beam irradiation of the 3C-SiC(111) surface on the growth of graphene by the SiC surface-decomposition method. When a 3C-SiC(111) surface was irradiated by 1 keV Ar+ ions at a dose of 4.5 × 1015 cm2 in an ultra-high-vacuum chamber and then annealed at 1200 °C for 1 min, the formation of graphene layers was promoted in comparison with that in the absence of ion-beam irradiation. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies showed that Ar ion bombardment of the 3C-SiC(111) caused breakage of surface bonds and helped Si atoms to desorb from the surface.