Conductivity change of defective graphene by helium ion beams

Abstract

Applying a recently developed helium ion microscope, we demonstrated direct nano-patterning and Anderson localization of single-layer graphene (SLG) on SiO2/Si substrates. In this study, we clarified the spatial-resolution-limitation factor of direct nano-patterning of SLG. Analysis of scanning capacitance microscopy measurements reveals that the conductivity of helium ion (H+)-irradiated SLG nanostructures depends on their geometrical size, i.e., the smaller the H+-irradiated SLG region, the higher its conductivity becomes. This finding can be explained by the hopping carrier transport across strongly localized states of defective SLG.