Low-temperature growth of large-scale, single-crystalline graphene on Ir(111)

Iridium is a promising substrate for self-limiting growth of graphene. However, single-crystalline graphene can only be fabricated over 1120 K. The weak interaction between graphene and Ir makes it challenging to grow graphene with a single orientation at a relatively low temperature. Here, we report the growth of large-scale, single-crystalline graphene on Ir(111) substrate at a temperature as low as 800 K using an oxygen-etching assisted epitaxial growth method. We firstly grow polycrystalline graphene on Ir. The subsequent exposure of oxygen leads to etching of the misaligned domains. Additional growth cycle, in which the leftover aligned domain serves as a nucleation center, results in a large-scale and single-crystalline graphene layer on Ir(111). Low-energy electron diffraction, scanning tunneling microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy experiments confirm the successful growth of large-scale and single-crystalline graphene. In addition, the fabricated single-crystalline graphene is transferred onto a SiO₂/Si substrate. Transport measurements on the transferred graphene show a carrier mobility of about $3300{cm}^2\cdot V^{-1}\cdot s^{-1}$. This work provides a way for the synthesis of large-scale, high-quality graphene on weak-coupled metal substrates. (rapid communication)