ORIGIN AND APPLICATIONS OF SELF-POLARIZED FERROELECTRICS ON GRAPHENE

Abstract

The promise of graphene as a revolutionary material for next-generation optoelectronics has not yet been realized, due to a lack of transfer processes & applications leveraging its unique properties. The recent pairing of graphene with ferroelectric materials has yielded promising results for applications, however a thorough understanding of the graphene-ferroelectric interface is yet to be obtained. This thesis presents the first comprehensive study of the aforementioned interface, identifying a mismatch strain-induced mechanism leading to the growth of self-polarized ferroelectric on graphene. The work has led to a new understanding, theoretically derived & experimentally demonstrated, of the influence of growth substrate on the properties of ferroelectric crystals. The self-polarized ferroelectric is employed to peel graphene from growth substrate, enabling the first clean & dry transfer process for graphene. Lastly, the infrared transparency of graphene is exploited to develop IR sensors with self-polarized ferroelectrics, capable of operating 10x faster than conventional pyroelectrics.