Reduction of graphitization temperature of SiC surface by addition of oxygen

Imaizumi, Kei*; Takahashi, Ryota*; Miyamoto, Yu*; Handa, Hiroyuki*; Saito, Eiji*; Fukidome, Hirokazu*; Suemitsu, Maki*; Teraoka, Yuden; Yoshigoe, Akitaka 

As the graphene, 2D-crystal of a carbon atomic layer, has a large mobility of 300000 cm/V/s, it is expected as a candidate for the next generation electronic device material. As to the practical use of graphene, a graphene-on-silicon (GOS) technique in which graphene is formed by thermal annealling on an silicon substrate covered by an SiC thin film. Since the anneal temperature is high as 1523-1573 K for the graphene formation in the former techniques including the GOS technique, such a high temperature technique is not introduced indeed in silicon device fabrication processes. We noticed a temperature-pressure phase diagram reported by Yongwei Song et al.. We have succeeded to form a graphene film on the SiC surface at a lower temperature of 1273 K by adding a bit of oxygen gas in the anneal atmosphere.