Study of graphene growth mechanism on nickel thin films

Since chemical vapor deposition of carbon-containing precursors onto transition metals tends to develop as the preferred growth process for the mass production of graphene films, the deep understanding of its mechanism becomes mandatory. In the case of nickel, which represents an economically viable catalytic substrate, the solubility of carbon is significant enough so that the growth mechanism proceeds in at least two steps: the dissolution of carbon in the metal followed by the precipitation of graphene at the surface. In this work, we use ion implantation to dissolve calibrated amounts of carbon in nickel thin films and grow graphene films by annealing. Observations of those graphene films using transmission electron microscopy, directly on the growth substrate as well as transfered on TEM grids, allowed us to precisely study the mechanisms that lead to their formation.