Effects of ultraviolet nanosecond laser irradiation on structural modification and optical transmission of single layer graphene

Structural modifications and optical transmission change of single layer graphene (SLG) on transparent SiO2 substrate induced by nanosecond 355 nm laser irradiation were systematically studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), laser-excited Raman, X-ray photon spectroscopy (XPS) and UV–vis transmission spectra. In this study, to avoid damage to graphene, the selected irradiation fluence was set to be smaller than the laser damage threshold of SLG. Laser-driven formation of nano-dots, carbon clusters and spherical carbon morphologies were clearly presented using SEM magnification images, and the formation mechanism of such structures were discussed. Raman spectra revealed formation of D' peak and the continuously increasing of ID/IG intensity ratio with the concurrent increase of laser fluence, indicating the increase in amount of structural defects and disordering in SLG. XPS results disclosed that the oxygen content in SLG increases with laser fluence. The formation and relative content increase of CO, COC and OCO bonds in SLG induced by laser irradiation were also revealed by XPS. Laser-driven micro-structure modifications of crystalline graphene to nano-crystalline graphene and photo-chemical reactions between graphene and O2 and H2O in air environment were suggested to be responsible for the Raman and XPS revealed modifications in SLG. It is worthy to point out that the above mentioned structural modifications only caused a slight decrease (<2% @ 550 nm) in the optical transmittance of SLG. These results may provide more selections for the batch processing of large scale graphene aiming at modifying its structure and thus taiorling its properties.