Abstract. Loose graphene sheets, one to a few atomic layers thick, are often observed on freshly cleaved HOPG surfaces. A straightforward technique using electrostatic attraction is demonstrated to transfer these graphene sheets to a selected substrate. Sheets from one to 22 layers thick have been transferred by this method. One sheet after initial deposition is measured by atomic force microscopy to be only an atomic layer thick (~0.35 nm). A few weeks later, this height is seen to increase to ~0.8 nm. Raman spectroscopy of a single layer sheet shows the emergence of an intense D band which dramatically decreases as the number of layers in the sheet increase. The intense D band in monolayer graphene is attributed to the graphene conforming to the roughness of the substrate. The disruption of the C–C bonds within the single graphene layer could also contribute to this intense D band as evidenced by the emergence of a new band at 1620 cm⁻¹.

Print publication: Issue 13 (4 April 2007)
Received 22 November 2006, in final form 19 January 2007
Published 28 February 2007