  The use of graphene electronics in space will depend on the radiation
hardness of graphene. The damage threshold of graphene samples, subjected to 2
MeV proton irradiation, was found to increase with layer number and also when
the graphene layer was supported by a substrate. The thermal properties of
graphene as a function of the number of layers or as influenced by the
substrate argue against a thermal model for the production of damage by the ion
beam. We propose a model of intense electronically-stimulated surface
desorption of the atoms as the most likely process for this damage mechanism.
