Study of the Shape Single Crystal Graphene Growth by Chemical Vapor Deposition on Copper Foil*

The chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth of single-crystal graphene on polycrystalline copper foils is a complex process affected by thermodynamics, kinetic, and growth parameters. Moreover, these factors lead to the diversity of island shapes of single-crystal graphene, including hexagons, flowers, squares, stars, dendrites, butterflies, hourglass, and lobes. Here, we present experimental observations of the different shapes of the micrometer-sized single-crystal graphene on copper foil obtained by the CVD technique. We applied Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and optical microscopy techniques to examine the diverse growth morphologies of the graphene shapes in different copper domains with various crystal orientations and the evolution of the nuclei shapes over the time.