Correlated microscopy of electronic and material properties of graphene grown on diamond thin films

In this work we compare growth of graphene on diamond thin films that enable large area processing. We use films with different crystal size and surface roughness to obtain deeper insight into formation and properties of GoD. The diamond films are coated by a nm thin sputtered Ni layer and heated to 900°C in a forming gas atmosphere (H2/Ar) to initiate catalytic thermal CVD process. The samples are cleaned from residual Ni after the growth process. We employ scanning electron microscopy, Raman micro-spectroscopy and Kelvin probe force microscopy to correlate material, structural, and electronic properties of graphene on diamond. We show how grain size and grain boundaries influence graphene growth and material and electronic properties. For instance we show that the grain boundaries (with non-diamond carbon phases) in diamond films have an important role. They influence the electronic properties and they are beneficial for forming graphene on diamond higher quality