Growth of Few-Layer Graphene on Sapphire Substrates by Directly Depositing Carbon Atoms

Few-layer graphene (FLG) is successfully grown on sapphire substrates by directly depositing carbon atoms at the substrate temperature of 1300 °C in a molecular beam epitaxy chamber. The reflection high energy diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and near−edge x-ray absorption fine structure are used to characterize the sample, which confirm the formation of graphene layers. The mean domain size of FLG is around 29.2 nm and the layer number is about 2–3. The results demonstrate that the grown FLG displays a turbostratic stacking structure similar to that of the FLG produced by annealing C-terminated α-SiC surface.