Enhanced mechanical properties of 4H-SiC by epitaxial carbon films obtained from bilayer graphene

Graphene exhibits excellent mechanical properties under atomically thin thickness, which made it very suitable for nanoelectromechanical systems that had high requirements for the thickness of coatings. The epitaxial bilayer graphene on the 4H-SiC (0001) surface presents high stiffness and hardness comparable to diamond. However, due to structural transition occurring at the nanoscale, it is difficult to elucidate reinforcement mechanisms using experimental methods. Here, we applied molecular dynamics simulations to study nanoindentation of epitaxial carbon-film-covered 4H-SiC (0001) surfaces. Because a weak interaction potential existed between graphene layers at indentation depth (h