Bromine doping of multilayer graphene for low-resistance interconnects

Multilayer graphene (MLG) is expected to be a low-resistance and high-reliability interconnect material replacing copper (Cu) in nanoscale interconnects. To achieve low-resistance interconnect with MLG, carrier doping is necessary since the carrier concentrations in pristine MLGs are low. In this work, the effects of bromine (Br) doping by intercalation on the carrier concentration and sheet resistance of exfoliated highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) were investigated by measuring the Fermi level shift using ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) and the four-terminal method, respectively. The Fermi level was shifted downward up to 0.63 eV, and the sheet resistance was reduced to less than 10% of that of the pristine HOPG by increasing the Br concentration. A similar Fermi level shift was observed for the commercially available CVD-MLG. Br doping is thus promising for low-resistance MLG interconnects from the perspective of carrier doping. (C) 2014 The Japan Society of Applied Physics