Fabrication Method for Suspended Graphene Structures Using Local Chemical and Dry Reactive Ion Etching

A method for fabricate suspended graphene samples layers for investigation of its intrinsic electronic and thermal properties is reported. The method allows one to fabricate suspended graphene samples of a desired shape by using the selective dry and chemical etching of SiO2 under-layer atop a Si substrate. The electron beam lithography and dry reactive ion etching are used for patterning the suspended and supported regions of graphene after deposition. Micro-Raman spectroscopic study of the resulting suspended graphene layers show the high quality of the samples and reduced electron-impurity scattering as compared to that of supported graphene flakes. The proposed method can be used for fabrication of graphene nanoelectrctromechanical systems, resonators, cantilever devices, molecular manipulation, and mass sensing.