Low temperature critical growth of high quality nitrogen doped graphene on dielectrics by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition.

Nitrogen doping is one of the most promising routes to modulate the electronic characteristic of graphene. Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) enables low-temperature graphene growth. However, PECVD growth of nitrogen doped graphene (NG) usually requires metal-catalysts, and to the best of our knowledge, only amorphous carbon-nitrogen films have been produced on dielectric surfaces by metal-free PECVD. Here, a critical factor for metal-free PECVD growth of NG is reported, which allows high quality NG crystals to be grown directly on dielectrics like SiO2/Si, Al2O3, h-BN, mica at 435 °C without a catalyst. Thus, the processes needed for loading the samples on dielectrics and n-type doping are realized in a simple PECVD, which would be of significance for future graphene electronics due to its compatibility with the current microelectronic processes.