Patent ID: 8647436

Claim:
A method of making isotopically enriched graphene, comprising the steps of: (a) providing a catalyst substrate including a single crystal region on a surface of the substrate, said region having a hexagonal crystal lattice substantially lattice-matched to graphene; (b) providing a carbon ion beam source including a focusing aperture for generating a focused ion beam that is directed towards the substrate, said beam comprising a plurality of ion species, each species comprising a different electrically charged carbon isotope or a different electrically charged molecular ion containing one or more carbon isotopes; (c) accelerating the ion beam with an electric field towards the substrate; (d) using magnetic or electric field generating devices to separate the ion beam into a plurality of component ion beams according to the charge-to-mass ratio of the different ion species; (e) passing a selected component ion beam substantially comprised of a single ion species containing a single desired carbon isotope or molecular ion containing a single desired carbon isotope toward the substrate and filtering out the remaining component ion beams containing undesired ion species; and (f) directing the selected component ion beam onto the substrate to epitaxially grow isotopically-enriched graphene on the surface of the single crystal region of the substrate from the desired carbon isotope.