On 31 August 2022 a PhD student of the Institute of Materials Science Erika Rajackaitė has defended her doctoral dissertation entitled “Microwave Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition and Quality Studies of Planar and Vertical Graphene Layers” and gained a doctor degree in the field of science of Materials Engineering. Scientific supervisor Prof. Habil. Dr. Sigitas Tamulevičius.
In the dissertation work the correlation between the results of distinct analysis methods of planar and vertical graphene produced by microwave plasma activated chemical vapour deposition technique has been explored. The comprehensive characterization of structure, morphology, physical properties of graphene while setting the main focus on defects/disorder studies is crucial for graphene layers evaluation and development acceleration of various graphene applications. As most informative and advanced Raman scattering spectroscopy method showed having some limitations, in current research was demonstrated that TAS analysis of the excited state relaxation dynamics in graphene (by measuring hot electrons cooling dynamics that originates from electron-phonon interactions, leading to phonon-phonon interactions) could be a perspective complementary tool as a source of information about the structure, defects and respectively – the quality of graphene. Synthesized planar graphene layers were applied as transparent, flexible electrodes in organic devices.
The research was carried out at the Institute of Materials Science of KTU in “Santaka” valley and during the internship in Mads Clausen Institute at University of Southern Denmark.
