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22 May 2024 High-speed atomic oxygen irradiation of atomically thin graphene for astronomical applications
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Abstract

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.

CC BY: © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.
Kazuto Kashiwakura, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Midori Hirota, Yoshimi Niwa, Yuzuru Tawara, Ryo Kitaura, Haruka Omachi, Masahito Tagawa, Kentaro Nomoto, Kazuyuki Tsuruoka, Kenji Kawahara, and Hiroki Ago "High-speed atomic oxygen irradiation of atomically thin graphene for astronomical applications," Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems 10(2), 026006 (22 May 2024). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.10.2.026006
Received: 29 August 2023; Accepted: 5 April 2024; Published: 22 May 2024
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KEYWORDS
Graphene

Adaptive optics

Raman spectroscopy

Oxygen

Tunable filters

Astronomy

Coating

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