Making Consistent Contacts to Graphene: Effect of Architecture and Growth Induced Defects

Abstract

The effect of contact architecture, graphene defect density and metal-semiconductor work function difference on resistivity of metal-graphene contacts have been investigated. An architecture with metal on the bottom of graphene is found to yield resistivities that are lower, by a factor of 4, and most consistent as compared to metal on top of graphene. Growth defects in graphene film were found to further reduce resistivity by a factor of 2. Using a combination of method and metal used, the contact resistivity of graphene has been decreased by a factor of 10 to 1200 +- 250 Ohm-um using Palladium as the contact metal. While the improved consistency is due to the metal being able to contact uncontaminanted graphene in the metal on the bottom architecture, lower contact resistivities observed on defective graphene with the same metal is attributed to the increased number of modes of quantum transport in the channel.