Step driven competitive epitaxial and self-limited growth of graphene on copper surface

The existence of surface steps was found to have significant function and influence on the growth of graphene on copper via chemical vapor deposition. The two typical growth modes involved were found to be influenced by the step morphologies on copper surface, which led to our proposed step driven competitive growth mechanism. We also discovered a protective role of graphene in preserving steps on copper surface. Our results showed that wide and high steps promoted epitaxial growth and yielded multilayer graphene domains with regular shape, while dense and low steps favored self-limited growth and led to large-area monolayer graphene films. We have demonstrated that controllable growth of graphene domains of specific shape and large-area continuous graphene films are feasible.