Graphene
The theory of graphene was first explored by Wallace in 1947 as a starting point for understanding the electronic properties of 3D graphite. The emergent massless Dirac equation was first pointed out by Semenoff, DiVincenzo and Mele. The earliest TEM images of few-layer graphite were published by Ruess and Vogt in 1948. An early, detailed study on few-layer graphite dates to 1962 when Boehm and colleagues reported producing monolayer flakes of reduced graphene oxide. Efforts to make thin films of graphite by mechanical exfoliation started in 1990, but nothing thinner than 50 to 100 layers was produced before 2004. Initial attempts to make atomically thin graphitic films employed exfoliation techniques similar to the drawing method. Multilayer samples down to 10 nm in thickness were obtained.
Epitaxial graphene growth on silicon carbide
Epitaxial graphene growth on silicon carbide (SiC) by thermal decomposition is a methods to produce large-scale few-layer graphene (FLG).
Graphene is one of the most promising nanomaterials for the future because of its various characteristics, like strong stiffness and high electric and thermal conductivitiy.
Still, reproducible production of Graphene is difficult, thus lots of different techniques have been developed.
The main advantage of epitaxial graphene growth on silicon carbide over other techniques is to obtain graphene layers directly on a semiconducting or semi-insulating substrate which is commercially available.