Nano Express
Graphitic carbon grown on fluorides by molecular beam epitaxy
Author affiliations
Department of Physics and Graphene, Research Institute Sejong University, Seoul, 143-747, South Korea
Citation and License
Nanoscale Research Letters 2013, 8:11 doi:10.1186/1556-276X-8-11
Published: 3 January 2013Abstract
We study the growth mechanism of carbon molecules supplied by molecular beam epitaxy on fluoride substrates (MgF2, CaF2, and BaF2). All the carbon layers form graphitic carbon with different crystallinities depending on the cation. Especially, the growth on MgF2 results in the formation of nanocrystalline graphite (NCG). Such dependence on the cation is a new observation and calls for further systematic studies with other series of substrates. At the same growth temperature, the NCG on MgF2 has larger clusters than those on oxides. This is contrary to the general expectation because the bond strength of the carbon-fluorine bond is larger than that of the carbon-oxygen bond. Our results show that the growth of graphitic carbon does not simply depend on the chemical bonding between the carbon and the anion in the substrate.
