Contact resistivity and current flow path at metal/graphene contact

The contact properties between metal and graphene were examined. The electrical measurement on a multiprobe device with different contact areas revealed that the current flow preferentially entered graphene at the edge of the contact metal. The analysis using the cross-bridge Kelvin structure (CBK) suggested that a transition from the edge conduction to area conduction occurred for a contact length shorter than the transfer length of ~1 micron. The contact resistivity for Ni was measured as ~5*10-6 Ohmcm2 using the CBK. A simple calculation suggests that a contact resistivity less than 10-9 Ohmcm2 is required for miniaturized graphene field effect transistors.

K. Nagashio, T. Nishimura, K. Kita, A. Toriumi · 2010