Graphene growth on epitaxial Ru thin films on sapphire

Single crystalline Ru(0001) thin films epitaxially grown on sapphire (0001) substrates were used as sacrificial metal templates for the synthesis of high-quality graphene with uniform monolayer thickness and full surface coverage. Removal of the metal template by etching transferred monolayer graphene with good crystal quality onto the insulating sapphire support. Our findings demonstrate epitaxial Ru(0001) films on sapphire (0001) as a substrate for the scalable synthesis of high-quality graphene for applications. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3518490]