Near Field Microwave Microscopy for Nanoscale Characterization Imaging and Patterning of Graphene
Tamara Monti, Andrea Di Donato, Davide Mencarelli, Giuseppe Venanzoni, Antonio Morini, Marco Farina Marche Polytechnic University, Ancona, Italy
Ivan V. Vlassiouk, Alexander Tselev Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, USA
On October 30, the paper entitled "Microwave Microscopy for Nanoscale Characterization, Imaging and Patterning of Graphene", by Tamara Monti, Andrea di Donato, Menchaca David, Joseph Venanzoni Antonio Morini, Marco Farina, Ivan V. Vlassiouk and Alexander Tselev, presented by Professor Di Donato, has been awarded the "Best conference Paper Award" at the International Conference international Conference on Manipulation, Manufacturing and Measurement on the Nanoscale (Taipei, Taiwan) (http://3m-nano.org/2014/ main / show.asp? id = 70). The award was given in acknowledgment of the activities of the Ancona group in the field of Microwave Microscopy, as described in the article.
The work describes in detail how to create reproducible patterns on hexagonal graphene (produced by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory), increasing the signal power of a microwave near-field microscope, developed by the same research group. The article speculates mechanisms related to storage in an underlying layer of copper oxide; these mechanisms are then studied by thermal and electromagnetic models.
The effect described is quite surprising because of the high thermal conductivity of graphene, moreover grown on a thick layer of copper, and at the same time for the reduced energy necessary to trigger it. During the presentation, Professor Di Donato has also shown that the developed system allows the characterization of materials at nanoscale dimensions, explaining the use of time-domain reflectometry, introduced by the group in this particular set of microscopes.
