Long-range ordered single-crystal graphene on high-quality heteroepitaxial Ni thin films grown on MgO(111)

Large-area single crystal monolayer graphene is synthesized on Ni(111) thin films, which have flat terraces and no grain boundaries. The flat single-crystal Ni films are heteroepitaxially grown on MgO(111) substrates using a buffer layer technique. Low-energy electron diffraction and various spectroscopic methods reveal the long-range single crystallinity and uniform monolayer thickness of the graphene. When transferred onto an insulating wafer, continuous millimeter-scale single domain graphene is obtained.