Graphene nanoribbons: relevance of etching process

Most graphene nanoribbons in the experimental literature are patterned using plasma etching. Various etching processes induce different types of defects and do not necessarily result in the same electronic and structural ribbon properties. This study focuses on two frequently used etching techniques, namely oxygen plasma ashing and oxygen/argon reactive ion etching (RIE). Oxygen plasma ashing represents an alternative to RIE physical etching for sensitive substrates, as it is a more gentle chemical process. We find that plasma ashing creates defective graphene in the exposed trenches, resulting in instabilities in the ribbon transport. These are probably caused by more or larger localized states at the edges of the ashed device compared to the RIE defined device.