Preparation of Graphene: Deposition and Annealing

This paper is a review of the analysis of the role of high-temperature annealing in technologies for obtaining graphene films and creating structures for nanoelectronics based on them. As is well known, the high-temperature annealing of SiC single crystals is one of the methods for producing graphene. Although this method makes it possible to obtain high-quality graphene films, this method has significant disadvantages due to the high annealing temperature and the small size of single-crystalline domains of the resulting graphene. The method of producing graphene by annealing structures with solid carbon layers deposited on a nickel film on a dielectric substrate, followed by the removal of nickel by chemical etching, is becoming increasingly widespread. Annealing graphene films, regardless of the method of their preparation, is a means of cleaning the graphene surface from the adsorbed contaminants and improving its crystal structure. It is revealed that annealing can lead to different results for isolated graphene films and for graphene structures intended for use in nanoelectronic devices.