Graphene on Non-Polar SiC Facets

Graphene nanoribbons (SW-GNR) grown on sidewall SiC substrate facets exhibit exceptional quantized ballistic transport over 15 μm even at room temperature. For micron long ribbons, transport in these charge neutral ribbons involves a single conducting channel with a conductance of e^2/h, which to this day is not fully understood. We have therefore studied here graphene grown on SiC full wafers cut along the same crystallographic orientation as the sidewall facets. We characterize graphene growth on these non conventional (non-polar) faces and identify preferred orientation and the presence of an interface layer. Transport measurements of Hall-bar patterned graphene devices shows strong similarities with that of SW-GNR ribbons. In particular an analysis in terms of edge and bulk electronic states reveal a ballistic edge state conduction, with mean free path larger than 10 μm, and a bulk conduction with a ~ 10 nm mean free path. Segment quantization is also discussed. The findings in this thesis point to a new route towards future large scale high-performance electronics.Ph.D