The New World of 2D materials

2D Materials are crystalline materials consisting of a single layer of atoms. Isolation of Graphene has led to a large amount of research on other 2D materials which
due to their unusual characteristics have applications in electronics and optoelectronics, sensors,
biological engineering, filtration, lightweight/strong composite materials, photovoltaics, medicine,
quantum dots, thermal management, ethanol distillation and energy storage. These applications can be
achieved by using 2D allotropes of various elements or compounds such as Graphene, Borophene,
Silicine, Stanene, etc.
In the past years, the scientific community has expanded beyond the electronic and
optical properties to explore the mechanics of 2D layered materials. Mechanical properties are of
fundamental importance in materials science and engineering, and have been playing a great role in
various materials applications in the human history. Measurements of mechanical properties of 2dimensional (2D) materials, however, are particularly challenging. This can be resolved by
considering graphene as a model for other materials since isolation of graphene is easier.
In this report, we first perform an all-dry deterministic transfer of graphene on SiO 2.
Then we measure the elastic properties of graphene using atomic force microscopy
through the nano-indentation technique. The aim of the experiments and the analysis
is to answer the questions such as how atomically thin materials respond to mechanical strain on a
nanoscale have been studied in static deformation experiments.

All Dry Deterministic Transfer

Isolation of Graphene
Different fabrication methods have been developed to isolate atomically thin 2D materials in the past years. The selection of the fabrication/isolation method strongly
depends on the application as different techniques may yield different size, thickness and quality of
the fabricated 2D crystals and hence different electrical and mechanical properties.
One of the efficient method of exfoliation is the scotch-tape method. In this micromechanical
exfoliation method, graphene is detached from a graphite crystal using adhesive tape. After peeling it
of the graphite, multiple-layer graphene remains on the tape. By repeated peeling the multiple-layer
graphene is cleaved into various flakes of few-layer graphene. Afterwards the tape is attached to the
substrate and the tape is detached slowly from one end so that graphene gets properly suspended on
the substrate. One last peeling with an unused tape can significantly increase the probability of finding
mono- and bi- layers.

Suspension on SiO2 substrate

The substrate was fabricated using nanoimprint lithography and reactive ion etching
(RIE). The nanoimprint master, consisting of a
.
The experimental setup employed to transfer two-dimensional crystals comprises an
optical microscope supplemented with large working distance optical objectives and
a three axis micrometer stage to accurately position the stamp very similar to the
setups employed in other transfer methods.
The stamp is a thin layer of viscoelastic material (PDMS) which is adhered to a
glass slide to facilitate its handling. The two-dimensional crystals to be transferred
are deposited onto the viscoelastic layer by mechanical exfoliation of the bulk-layered crystal
with Scotch tape. The surface of the stamp is inspected under the optical microscope to select
the thinner flakes due to their faint contrast under normal illumination. As the stamp is
transparent, transmission mode can be used to determine the number of layers. Raman
spectroscopy should be carried out on the surface of the stamp to confirm the thickness of the
flake. Once a thin flake has been identified, the SiO2 (acceptor) substrate is fixed on the
sample XYZ stage using double-sided tape. The stamp is then attached to the three axis
manipulator with the flakes facing towards the sample. As the stamp is transparent, one can
see the sample through it and thus it is possible to align the desired flake on the SiO2 surface
where one wants to transfer the flake at sub-micrometer resolution.
In order to transfer the flake to the SiO2 surface, the stamp is pressed against the
surface and it is peeled off very slowly. The working principle of the transfer is based
on the viscoelasticity: the stamp behaves as an elastic solid over short timescales while it can
slowly ow over long timescales. Flakes adhere to its surface because the viscoelastic material
is in intimate contact with the flakes. By slowly peeling off the stamp from the surface, the
viscoelastic material detaches, releasing the flakes that
adhere preferentially to the SiO2 surface.
We have used an all-dry transfer method that allows one to place two-dimensional
crystals on a position desired by the user with sub-micron precision. As the process
does not require any wet chemical steps, it can be used reliably to fabricate freely
suspended structures and it significantly reduces the contamination in the fabricated
samples. Since the all-dry transfer process has a wider applicability and better efficiency we
used it as our means of creating a suspended graphene on holes punched on the SiO2
substrate.

Measurement of Young's Modulus

Atomic Force Microscopy
The spring constant of the test cantilever was calibrated by pushing against the
reference cantilever and measuring the tip deflection as a function of piezoelectric
transducer displacement piezo, using

where K ref is the spring constant of the reference cantilever,test is

deflection of the test cantilever, and is the tilt angle of the test
cantilever. The uncertainty of this method is reported to be within
9% . From this procedure, the force constants of the diamond-tip
attached cantilever was 14.8 N/m.

The force-displacement data for a few membranes showed nontrivial hysteresis which was accompanied by significant sliding of the
graphene flake around the periphery of the well, as seen with the
AFM. These data were not considered in analysis. The membrane
deflection is obtained by subtracting the tip deflection from the z
piezo displacement: = piezo F / k .

Youngs Modulus
We can write`

= E+ D

The Youngs modulus, E2D and pre-tension, 2D , can be characterized

by least-squares fitting the experimental curves using Eq. S4. This
relationship, while approximate agrees with the numerical solution
to within the uncertainty of the experiments.
Using the above equations, we obtain E = 1.05 TPa and

int =

110 GPa from the experiment.