2015/09/10 by Oliver Ochedowski, O. Ochedowski, O. Lehtinen +23
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Graphene research and applications #Ion-surface interactions and analysis #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Nanopore and Nanochannel Transport Studies #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1509.03043
16 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Nanotechnology
arxiv created 2015/09/10 · openalex publication_date 2015/09/10 · arxiv updated 2015/09/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The ability to manufacture tailored graphene nanostructures is a key factor to fully exploit its enormous technological potential. We have investigated nanostructures created in graphene by swift heavy ion induced folding. For our experiments, single layers of graphene exfoliated on various substrates and freestanding graphene have been irradiated and analyzed by atomic force and high resolution transmission electron microscopy as well as Raman spectroscopy. We show that the dense electronic excitation in the wake of the traversing ion yields characteristic nanostructures each of which may be fabricated by choosing the proper irradiation conditions. These nanostructures include unique morphologies such as closed bilayer edges with a given chirality or nanopores within supported as well as freestanding graphene. The length and orientation of the nanopore, and thus of the associated closed bilayer edge, may be simply controlled by the direction of the incoming ion beam. In freestanding graphene, swift heavy ion irradiation induces extremely small openings, offering the possibility to perforate graphene membranes in a controlled way.