A1 Journal article (refereed)
Ultrastiff graphene (2021)

Hiltunen, V.-M., Koskinen, P., Mentel, K. K., Manninen, J., Myllyperkiö, P., Pettersson, M., & Johansson, A. (2021). Ultrastiff graphene. npj 2D Materials and Applications, 5, Article 49. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41699-021-00232-1

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Hiltunen, Vesa-Matti; Koskinen, Pekka; Mentel, Kamila K.; Manninen, Jyrki; Myllyperkiö, Pasi; Pettersson, Mika; Johansson, Andreas

Journal or series: npj 2D Materials and Applications

eISSN: 2397-7132

Publication year: 2021

Publication date: 12/05/2021

Volume: 5

Article number: 49

Publisher: Nature Publishing Group

Publication country: United Kingdom

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41699-021-00232-1

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/75768

Abstract

Graphene has exceptionally high in-plane strength, which makes it ideal for various nanomechanical applications. At the same time, its exceptionally low out-of-plane stiffness makes it also flimsy and hard to handle, rendering out-of-plane structures unstable and difficult to fabricate. Therefore, from an application point of view, a method to stiffen graphene would be highly beneficial. Here we demonstrate that graphene can be significantly stiffened by using a laser writing technique called optical forging. We fabricate suspended graphene membranes and use optical forging to create stable corrugations. Nanoindentation experiments show that the corrugations increase graphene bending stiffness up to 0.8 MeV, five orders of magnitude larger than pristine graphene and corresponding to some 35 layers of bulk graphite. Simulations demonstrate that, in addition to stiffening by micron-scale corrugations, optical forging stiffens graphene also at the nanoscale. This magnitude of stiffening of an atomically thin membrane will open avenues for a plethora of new applications, such as GHz resonators and 3D scaffolds.

Keywords: graphene; nanostructures; thin films

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Ministry reporting: Yes

VIRTA submission year: 2021

JUFO rating: 1