Nickel mediated few-layer graphene growth on glass substrates by pulsed laser deposition

Abstract

This article shows the efficacy of transition metal (Ni) as a top layer on glass in the formation of graphene domain. Graphene films were grown on glass substrates from highly ordered pyrolytic graphite by pulsed laser deposition (PLD), with the help of 250 nm thick Ni thin film. The as-synthesized graphene films were characterized by UV–Vis spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Optical microscopy. The Raman spectroscopic measurement reveals that catalytic film of Ni enhanced the characteristic 2D-peak of graphene on glass substrate, indicating formation of graphene domain; while similar peaks were not detected in the absence of Ni. Moreover, Raman spectrum has shown less structural disorder in the resulting graphene film with the presence of Ni surfactant. The surface morphology of the as-synthesized graphene film was studied by scanning electron microscopy and optical microscopy. The present study shows an effective and exciting route to obtain high-quality graphene on glass substrates using PLD. Keywords: Graphene, PLD, Raman spectroscopy, UV–visible spectroscopy, SEM, XPS