Low specific contact resistivity to graphene achieved by AuGe/Ni/Au and annealing process

Low metal-graphene contact resistance is important in making high-performance graphene devices.In this work,we demonstrate a lower specific contact resistivity of Au_(0.88)Ge_(0.12)/Ni/Au-graphene contact compared with Ti/Au and Ti/Pt/Au contacts.The rapid thermal annealing process was optimized to improve AuGe/Ni/Au contact resistance.Results reveal that both pre- and post-annealing processes are effective for reducing the contact resistance.The specific contact resistivity decreases from 2.5 × 10~(-4) to 7.8 × 10~(-5) Ω·cm~2 by pre-annealing at 300 ℃ for one hour,and continues to decrease to9.5 × 10~(-7) H·cm~2 after post-annealing at 490 ℃ for 60 seconds.These approaches provide reliable means of lowering contact resistance.