Epitaxial Trilayer Graphene Mechanical Resonators Obtained by Electrochemical Etching Combined with Hydrogen Intercalation

We report on the mechanical resonance properties of trilayer graphene resonators created by controlling of the layer number. We epitaxially create bilayer graphene and an interfacial buffer layer on a SiC substrate. Using hydrogen intercalation combined with electrochemical etching, we break the Si–C bonds between the buffer layer and SiC substrate surface so that the bilayer graphene and buffer layer turn into three graphene layers. The successful creation of the trilayer graphene resonators is directly observed with a transmission electron microscope. By investigating the frequency shift induced by the laser irradiation, we estimate the thermal expansion coefficient. We find that a quality factor shows a typical temperature dependence of monolayer graphene and carbon-nanotube resonators with a doubly-clamped beam structure. This implies that there exists a general energy loss mechanism for both nanotubes and few-layer-graphene doubly clamped resonators.

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