Direct growth of few layer graphene on hexagonal boron nitride by chemical vapor deposition

Few layer graphene was grown on hexagonal boron nitride single crystal flakes by chemical vapor deposition without using metal catalysts. High quality and thickness controllability of the graphene layers are confirmed by Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Chemical vapor deposition of graphene on this perfect-lattice-matching dielectric substrate offers many advantages including cost effectiveness, easy scalability and compatibility with standard intergraded circuit processes and promises an advance to graphene's applications in microelectronics and optoelectronics. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.