Raman spectroscopy on etched graphene nanoribbons

We investigate etched single-layer graphene nanoribbons with different widths ranging from 30 to 130 nm by confocal Raman spectroscopy. We show that the D-line intensity only depends on the edge-region of the nanoribbon and that consequently the fabrication process does not introduce bulk defects. In contrast, the G-and the 2D-lines scale linearly with the irradiated area and therefore with the width of the ribbons. We further give indications that the D-to G-line ratio can be used to gain information about the crystallographic orientation of the underlying graphene. Finally, we perform polarization angle dependent measurements to analyze the nanoribbon edge-regions. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3561838]