Nanoscale Reduction of Graphene Fluoride via Thermochemical Nanolithography

Graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) would be the ideal building blocks for all carbon electronics; however, many challenges remain in developing an appropriate nanolithography that generates high-quality ribbons in registry with other devices. Here we report direct and local fabrication of GNRs by thermochemical nanolithography, which uses a heated AFM probe to locally convert highly insulating graphene fluoride to conductive graphene. Chemically isolated GNRs as narrow as 40 nm show p-doping behavior and sheet resistances as low as 22.9 KΩ/□ in air, only approximately 10× higher than that of pristine graphene. The impact of probe temperature and speed are examined as well as the variable-temperature transport properties of the GNR.