journal article·2025

High-precision AFM cutting of graphene via improved electrode-free local anodic oxidation for electronic band engineering

Zhenghan Wu, Xianliang Zhou, Kunqi Xu, Zhichun Zhang, Yufeng Xie, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Zhiwen Shi

Nanoscale· Volume 17· Issue 44
Publisher page

Abstract

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) cutting of graphene via electrode-free localized anodic oxidation (EFLAO), with great convenience and flexible pattern design, has been widely used in various experimental investigations of graphene and its nanostructures. However, the fabrication precision, i.e., the width of an etched nanotrench, has been limited to 60-100 nm, hindering its potential for creating quantum confinement effects or engineering band structures. Here, we report a greatly improved EFLAO technique that achieves etching precision of nanotrenches as narrow as 15 nm, allowing for the reliable fabrication of graphene nanoribbon (GNR) arrays with a 50 nm period. We also demonstrated that these GNR arrays with such a small period can serve as a periodic gating electrode to engineer graphene band structures and produce artificial graphene superlattices. The improved EFLAO provides a convenient approach for fabricating high-precision graphene nanostructures using just an AFM setup, facilitating the exploration of quantum confinement effects and other quantum phenomena in graphene and other carbon materials.
Source: europepmc · Quality: candidate unverified · Source record ↗

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Graphene research and applications · Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications · Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Key Laboratory of Artificial Structures and Quantum Control (Ministry of Education), School of Physics and Astronomy & Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

Research Center for Electronic and Optical Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan

Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan

Collaborative Innovation Centre of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China

State Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Engineering Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

Funding

National Basic Research Program of China · National Natural Science Foundation of China · Japan Society for the Promotion of Science · Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology · Japan Science and Technology Corporation · Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology · China Postdoctoral Science Foundation

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