High-speed atomic oxygen (AO) irradiation tests were performed for free-standing graphene membranes to investigate the degradation in terms of mechanical intensity for astronomical applications. The high-speed AO was irradiated with a typical velocity of 5 km/s and fluence values of 3×1015, 1×1016, 3×1016, and 1×1017 atoms/cm2. Two kinds of samples were prepared using single- and bi-layer graphene sheets with through-hole patterns with diameters of 10 μm and 10-200 μm, respectively. Consequently, the yield rate is found to be approximately 90% and 100% for the single- and bi-layer freestanding graphene samples, respectively. Almost all ruptured events occurred after the minimum fluence of 3E+15 atoms/cm2. The results suggest that the lifetime of the free-standing graphene structure can be longer by increasing the number of layers or any other causes such as accelerated metal outgassing contaminants remaining the vacuum chamber and detonation waves are not negligible and almost no damages are seen through the high-speed AO irradiation up to the fluence value of 1×1017 atoms/cm2. To improve the sensitivity, our original transfer method was introduced and we fabricated 300 / 900 μm diameter free-standing single- / bi-layer graphene structures successfully. Additionally, we confirmed that our technique can be applied to ground-based applications such as high-sensitivity graphene Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) support films.
The first results of high-speed atomic oxygen (AO) irradiation tests for atomically thin single-layer graphene sheets are presented as space environmental tolerance evaluation tests toward application in astronomy. The single-layer graphene sample was prepared without a metal coating, and high-speed AO irradiation tests were conducted with an averaged velocity of ∼6 km/s using a laser-detonation AO beam source assuming a low Earth orbit (LEO) case. The Raman spectral features were examined before and after the tests with fluence values of 2×1015, 2×1016, 2×1017, 2×1018, and 2×1019 atoms/cm2. It was found that there is no significant change in the observed D/G ratios for fluence up to 2×1017 atoms/cm2. In contrast, the D/G ratios changed from 0.04±0.03 to 0.8±0.4 for 2×1018 atoms/cm2 drastically in both the averaged value and 1-sigma range. Furthermore, the D/G ratio could not be measured beyond 2×1019atoms/cm2 because no peaks were observed in both the G and D bands, which suggests that the degradation occurs between 2×1017 and 2×1018 atoms/cm2 and no graphene sheets exist after the 2×1019 atoms/cm2 irradiation. Scanning electron microscopy images also support this conclusion in terms of the observed image contrast. Consequently, to protect the single-layer graphene sheets from erosion, a special treatment such as coating is needed to survive in an LEO for ≳ a day.
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