Unzipping and folding of graphene by swift heavy ions

Abstract

We show that graphene on a dielectric substrate sustains major modifications if irradiated with swift heavy ions under oblique angles. Due to a combination of defect creation in the graphene layer and hillock creation in the substrate, graphene is split and folded along the ion track yielding double layer nanoribbons. The folded parts are up to several 100 nm in length. Our results indicate that the radiation hardness of graphene devices is questionable but also open up a new way of introducing extended low-dimensional defects in a controlled way.