GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Under the provisions of the regulations for the degree

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

on Monday, March 6, 2017

2:00 PM
in Howey N110

will be held the

DISSERTATION PROPOSAL DEFENSE

for

Jamey Gigliotti

"Integrated Dielectrics for Protection and Gating of Epitaxial Graphene Devices"

Committee Members:

Prof. Walt deHeer, Advisor, Physics

Prof. Eric Vogel, Co-advisor, MSE

Prof. Abdallah Ougazzaden, ECE

Prof. Faisal Alamgir, MSE

Prof. Mark Losego, MSE

Abstract:

Epitaxial graphene is an exceptional platform for high performance carbon nanoelectronics and fundamental transport studies. Compared to exfoliated and CVD graphene, epitaxial graphene exhibits robust electronic transport and is best suited to wafer scale fabrication of high performance devices. However, due to its ultra-high crystalline quality, dielectric integration into epitaxial graphene systems is challenging. High-K metal oxides, such as Al2O3, have been widely investigated as a top gate; yet, despite innovative surface treatments and deposition techniques, current dielectric implementation reduces graphene transport performance and reliability. In this work, hexagonal boron nitride, a complementary 2D dielectric to graphene, is grown directly on epitaxial graphene surfaces via metal organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) for protection and gating. The hBN sp2 hybridization and layered stacking are confirmed via HRTEM, XPS, and HRXRD. Selective growth of 2D hBN is observed on graphene surfaces, in contrast to traditional dielectric deposition techniques which exhibit significantly reduced film quality on graphene. Raman, LEED, and van der Pauw resistance measurements demonstrate good graphene properties after hBN deposition.