Abstract-Contactless graphene conductivity mapping on a wide range of substrates with terahertz time-domain reflection spectroscopy

Hungyen Lin, Philipp Braeuninger-Weimer, Varun S. Kamboj, David S. Jessop, Riccardo Degl’Innocenti, Harvey E. Beere, David A. Ritchie, J. Axel Zeitler,  Stephan Hofmann

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-09809-7?WT.feed_name=subjects_materials-science

We demonstrate how terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) operating in reflection geometry can be used for quantitative conductivity mapping of large area chemical vapour deposited graphene films on sapphire, silicon dioxide/silicon and germanium. We validate the technique against measurements performed with previously established conventional transmission based THz-TDS and are able to resolve conductivity changes in response to induced back-gate voltages. Compared to the transmission geometry, measurement in reflection mode requires careful alignment and complex analysis, but circumvents the need of a terahertz transparent substrate, potentially enabling fast, contactless, in-line characterisation of graphene films on non-insulating substrates such as germanium.