Nanolithography on Graphene by Using Scanning Tunneling Microscopy in a Methanol Environment

Since it was discovered in 2004, graphene has attracted enormous attention as an emerging material for future devices, but it has been found that conventional lithographic processes based on polymer resist degrade its intrinsic performance. Recently, our group studied a resist-free scanning tunneling microscopy-based lithography in various atmospheres by injecting volatile liquids into a chamber. In this study, multilayer graphene was scanned and etched by controlling bias voltage under methanol pressure. We focused on improving patterning results in terms of depth and line width, while the previous study was performed to find an optimum gas environment for patterning on a graphite surface. Specifically, we report patterning outputs depending on conditions of voltage, current, and pressure. The optimum conditions for methanol environment etching were a gas pressure in the range of 41–50 torr, a −4 V tip bias, and a 2 nA tunneling current.