Atomic-scale imaging and manipulation of ridges on epitaxial graphene on 6H-SiC(0001)

Modification on Flower Defects and Electronic Properties of Epitaxial Graphene by Erbium

Manipulating the topological defects and electronic properties of graphene has been a subject of great interest. In this work, we have investigated the influence of Er predeposition on flower defects and electronic band structures of epitaxial graphene on SiC. It is shown that Er atoms grown on the SiC substrate actually work as an activator to induce flower defect formation with a density of 1.52 × 1012 cm-2 during the graphitization process when the Er coverage is 1.6 ML, about 5 times as much as that of pristine graphene. First-principles calculations demonstrate that Er greatly decreases the formation energy of the flower defect. We have discussed Er promoting effects on flower defect formation as well as its formation mechanism. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) have been utilized to reveal the Er doping effect and its modification to electronic structures of graphene. N-doping enhancement and band gap opening can be observed by using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). With Er coverage increasing from 0 to 1.6 ML, the Dirac point energy decreases from -0.34 to -0.37 eV and the band gap gradually increases from 320 to 360 meV. The opening of the band gap is attributed to the synergistic effect of substitution doping of Er atoms and high-density flower defects.

CVD graphene/Ge interface: morphological and electronic characterization of ripples

Graphene grown directly on germanium is a possible route for the integration of graphene into nanoelectronic devices as well as it is of great interest for materials science. The morphology of the interface between graphene and germanium influences the electronic properties and has not already been completely elucidated at atomic scale. In this work, we investigated the morphology of the single-layer graphene grown on Ge substrates with different crystallographic orientations. We determined the presence of sinusoidal ripples with a single propagation direction, zig-zag, and could arise due to compressive biaxial strain at the interface generated as a result of the opposite polarity of the thermal expansion coefficient of graphene and germanium. Local density of states measurements on the ripples showed a linear dispersion relation with the Dirac point slightly shifted with respect to the Fermi energy indicating that these out-of-plane deformations were n-doped, while the graphene regions between the highs were undoped.

Interfacial engineering in graphene bandgap

Graphene exhibits superior mechanical strength, high thermal conductivity, strong light-matter interactions, and, in particular, exceptional electronic properties. These merits make graphene an outstanding material for numerous potential applications. However, a graphene-based high-performance transistor, which is the most appealing application, has not yet been produced, which is mainly due to the absence of an intrinsic electronic bandgap in this material. Therefore, bandgap opening in graphene is urgently needed, and great efforts have been made regarding this topic over the past decade. In this review article, we summarise recent theoretical and experimental advances in interfacial engineering to achieve bandgap opening. These developments are divided into two categories: chemical engineering and physical engineering. Chemical engineering is usually destructive to the pristine graphene lattice via chemical functionalization, the introduction of defects, doping, chemical bonds with substrates, and quantum confinement; the latter largely maintains the atomic structure of graphene intact and includes the application of an external field, interactions with substrates, physical adsorption, strain, electron many-body effects and spin-orbit coupling. Although these pioneering works have not met all the requirements for electronic applications of graphene at once, they hold great promise in this direction and may eventually lead to future applications of graphene in semiconductor electronics and beyond.

Tuning the Pseudospin Polarization of Graphene by a Pseudomagnetic Field

One of the intriguing characteristics of honeycomb lattices is the appearance of a pseudomagnetic field as a result of mechanical deformation. In the case of graphene, the Landau quantization resulting from this pseudomagnetic field has been measured using scanning tunneling microscopy. Here we show that a signature of the pseudomagnetic field is a local sublattice symmetry breaking observable as a redistribution of the local density of states. This can be interpreted as a polarization of graphene's pseudospin due to a strain induced pseudomagnetic field, in analogy to the alignment of a real spin in a magnetic field. We reveal this sublattice symmetry breaking by tunably straining graphene using the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope. The tip locally lifts the graphene membrane from a SiO₂ support, as visible by an increased slope of the I(z) curves. The amount of lifting is consistent with molecular dynamics calculations, which reveal a deformed graphene area under the tip in the shape of a Gaussian. The pseudomagnetic field induced by the deformation becomes visible as a sublattice symmetry breaking which scales with the lifting height of the strained deformation and therefore with the pseudomagnetic field strength. Its magnitude is quantitatively reproduced by analytic and tight-binding models, revealing fields of 1000 T. These results might be the starting point for an effective THz valley filter, as a basic element of valleytronics.

The physics and chemistry of graphene-on-surfaces

This review describes the major “graphene-on-surface” structures and examines the roles of their properties in governing the overall performance for specific applications.

Two-dimensional gallium nitride realized via graphene encapsulation

The spectrum of two-dimensional (2D) and layered materials 'beyond graphene' offers a remarkable platform to study new phenomena in condensed matter physics. Among these materials, layered hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), with its wide bandgap energy (∼5.0-6.0 eV), has clearly established that 2D nitrides are key to advancing 2D devices. A gap, however, remains between the theoretical prediction of 2D nitrides 'beyond hBN' and experimental realization of such structures. Here we demonstrate the synthesis of 2D gallium nitride (GaN) via a migration-enhanced encapsulated growth (MEEG) technique utilizing epitaxial graphene. We theoretically predict and experimentally validate that the atomic structure of 2D GaN grown via MEEG is notably different from reported theory. Moreover, we establish that graphene plays a critical role in stabilizing the direct-bandgap (nearly 5.0 eV), 2D buckled structure. Our results provide a foundation for discovery and stabilization of 2D nitrides that are difficult to prepare via traditional synthesis.

Indirect Interlayer Bonding in Graphene-Topological Insulator van der Waals Heterostructure: Giant Spin-Orbit Splitting of the Graphene Dirac States

van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures of two-dimensional materials exhibit properties and functionalities that can be tuned by stacking order and interlayer coupling. Although direct covalent bonding is not expected at the heterojunction, the formation of an interface nevertheless breaks the symmetries of the layers, and the orthogonal requirement of the wave functions can lead to indirect interfacial coupling, creating new properties and functionalities beyond their constituent layers. Here, we fabricate graphene/topological insulator vdW heterostructure by transferring chemical vapor deposited graphene onto Bi2Se3 grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Using scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy, we observe a giant spin-orbit splitting of the graphene Dirac states up to 80 meV. Density functional theory calculations further reveal that this splitting of the graphene bands is a consequence of the breaking of inversion symmetry and the orthogonalization requirement on the overlapping wave functions at the interface, rather than simple direct bonding. Our findings reveal two intrinsic characteristics-the symmetry breaking and orthogonalization of the wave functions at the interface-that underlines the properties of vdW heterostructures.

Strain engineering of graphene: a review

Graphene has intrigued the science community by many unique properties not found in conventional materials. In particular, it is the strongest two-dimensional material ever measured, being able to sustain reversible tensile elastic strain larger than 20%, which yields an interesting possibility to tune the properties of graphene by strain and thus opens a new field called "straintronics". In this article, the current progress in the strain engineering of graphene is reviewed. We first summarize the strain effects on the electronic structure and Raman spectra of graphene. We then highlight the electron-phonon coupling greatly enhanced by the biaxial strain and the strong pseudomagnetic field induced by the non-uniform strain with specific distribution. Finally, the potential application of strain-engineering in the self-assembly of foreign atoms on the graphene surface is also discussed. Given the short history of graphene straintronics research, the current progress has been notable, and many further advances in this field are expected.

Characterization of SiC-grown epitaxial graphene microislands using tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Single-layer graphene microislands with smooth edges and no visible grain boundary were epitaxially grown on the C-face of 4H-SiC and then characterized at the nanoscale using tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS). Although these graphene islands appear highly homogeneous in micro-Raman imaging, TERS reveals the nanoscale strain variation caused by ridge nanostructures. A G' band position shift up to 9 cm(-1) and a band broadening up to 30 cm(-1) are found in TERS spectra obtained from nanoridges, which is explained by the compressive strain relaxation mechanism. The small size and refined nature of the graphene islands help in minimizing the inhomogeneity caused by macroscale factors, and allow a comparative discussion of proposed mechanisms of nanoridge formation.

Understanding the STM images of epitaxial graphene on a reconstructed 6H-SiC(0001) surface: the role of tip-induced mechanical distortion of graphene

Maxima in the STM images of epitaxial graphene (EG) on SiC(0001) (cyan) differ from topographic bumps in AFM images (green) by a separation distance of 1 nm, which is a result of two effects: the tip-induced distortion of EG and the asymmetric profile of the LDOS of the buffer layer.

Fullerene growth from encapsulated graphene flakes

The direct in situ observation of fullerene formation encapsulated within a graphene ridge has been made possible using an aberration corrected transmission electron microscope (AC-TEM). An atom-by-atom mechanism was proposed based on in situ AC-TEM observations. First principle calculations found a continuous energy decrease upon the addition of carbon atoms to the edge of the graphene flakes, which mimics the fullerene growth steps and supports the atom-by-atom mechanism. The ridged graphene structure worked as a container for pinning small graphene flakes and capturing carbon atoms, which increased the growth probability of the fullerene structure within the small encapsulated space.

Flower-shaped domains and wrinkles in trilayer epitaxial graphene on silicon carbide

Trilayer graphene is of particular interest to the 2D materials community because of its unique tunable electronic structure. However, to date, there is a lack of fundamental understanding of the properties of epitaxial trilayer graphene on silicon carbide. Here, following successful synthesis of large-area uniform trilayer graphene, atomic force microscopy (AFM) showed that the trilayer graphene on 6H-SiC(0001) was uniform over a large scale. Additionally, distinct defects, identified as flower-shaped domains and isolated wrinkle structures, were observed randomly on the surface using scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM/STS). These carbon nanostructures formed during growth, has different structural and electronic properties when compared with the adjacent flat regions of the graphene. Finally, using low temperature STM/STS at 4K, we found that the isolated wrinkles showed an irreversible rotational motion between two 60° configurations at different densities of states.

Soliton-like thermophoresis of graphene wrinkles

We studied the thermophoretic motion of wrinkles formed in substrate-supported graphene sheets by nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. We found that a single wrinkle moves along applied temperature gradient with a constant acceleration that is linearly proportional to temperature deviation between the heating and cooling sides of the graphene sheet. Like a solitary wave, the atoms of the single wrinkle drift upwards and downwards, which prompts the wrinkle to move forwards. The driving force for such thermophoretic movement can be mainly attributed to a lower free energy of the wrinkle back root when it is transformed from the front root. We establish a motion equation to describe the soliton-like thermophoresis of a single graphene wrinkle based on the Korteweg-de Vries equation. Similar motions are also observed for wrinkles formed in a Cu-supported graphene sheet. These findings provide an energy conversion mechanism by using graphene wrinkle thermophoresis.

Interplay of wrinkles, strain, and lattice parameter in graphene on iridium

Following graphene growth by thermal decomposition of ethylene on Ir(111) at high temperatures we analyzed the strain state and the wrinkle formation kinetics as function of temperature. Using the moiré spot separation in a low energy electron diffraction pattern as a magnifying mechanism for the difference in the lattice parameters between Ir and graphene, we achieved an unrivaled relative precision of ±0.1 pm for the graphene lattice parameter. Our data reveals a characteristic hysteresis of the graphene lattice parameter that is explained by the interplay of reversible wrinkle formation and film strain. We show that graphene on Ir(111) always exhibits residual compressive strain at room temperature. Our results provide important guidelines for strategies to avoid wrinkling.

Nanoscale structural characterization of epitaxial graphene grown on off-axis 4H-SiC (0001)

In this work, we present a nanometer resolution structural characterization of epitaxial graphene (EG) layers grown on 4H-SiC (0001) 8° off-axis, by annealing in inert gas ambient (Ar) in a wide temperature range (Tgr from 1600 to 2000°C). For all the considered growth temperatures, few layers of graphene (FLG) conformally covering the 100 to 200-nm wide terraces of the SiC surface have been observed by high-resolution cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (HR-XTEM). Tapping mode atomic force microscopy (t-AFM) showed the formation of wrinkles with approx. 1 to 2 nm height and 10 to 20 nm width in the FLG film, as a result of the release of the compressive strain, which builds up in FLG during the sample cooling due to the thermal expansion coefficients mismatch between graphene and SiC. While for EG grown on on-axis 4H-SiC an isotropic mesh-like network of wrinkles interconnected into nodes is commonly reported, in the present case of a vicinal SiC surface, wrinkles are preferentially oriented in the direction perpendicular to the step edges of the SiC terraces. For each Tgr, the number of graphene layers was determined on very small sample areas by HR-XTEM and, with high statistics and on several sample positions, by measuring the depth of selectively etched trenches in FLG by t-AFM. Both the density of wrinkles and the number of graphene layers are found to increase almost linearly as a function of the growth temperature in the considered temperature range.

Layer-by-layer transfer of multiple, large area sheets of graphene grown in multilayer stacks on a single SiC wafer

Here we report a technique for transferring graphene layers, one by one, from a multilayer deposit formed by epitaxial growth on the Si-terminated face of a 6H-SiC substrate. The procedure uses a bilayer film of palladium/polyimide deposited onto the graphene coated SiC, which is then mechanically peeled away and placed on a target substrate. Orthogonal etching of the palladium and polyimide leaves isolated sheets of graphene with sizes of square centimeters. Repeating these steps transfers additional sheets from the same SiC substrate. Raman spectroscopy, scanning tunneling spectroscopy, low-energy electron diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, together with scanning tunneling, atomic force, optical, and scanning electron microscopy reveal key properties of the materials. The sheet resistances determined from measurements of four point probe devices were found to be ∼2 kΩ/square, close to expectation. Graphene crossbar structures fabricated in stacked configurations demonstrate the versatility of the procedures.