Interaction, growth, and ordering of epitaxial graphene on SiC{0001} surfaces: A comparative photoelectron spectroscopy study
Top Cited Papers
- 2 April 2008
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review B
- Vol. 77 (15), 155303
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.77.155303
Abstract
Thermally induced growth of graphene on the two polar surfaces of is investigated with emphasis on the initial stages of growth and interface structure. The experimental methods employed are angle-resolved valence band photoelectron spectroscopy, soft x-ray induced core-level spectroscopy, and low-energy electron diffraction. On the Si-terminated (0001) surface, the reconstruction is the precursor of the growth of graphene and it persists at the interface upon the growth of few layer graphene (FLG). The structure is a carbon layer with graphene-like atomic arrangement covalently bonded to the substrate where it is responsible for the azimuthal ordering of FLG on SiC(0001). In contrast, the interaction between graphene and the C-terminated surface is much weaker, which accounts for the low degree of order of FLG on this surface. A model for the growth of FLG on SiC{0001} is developed, wherein each new graphene layer is formed at the bottom of the existing stack rather than on its top. This model yields, in conjunction with the differences in the interfacial bonding strength, a natural explanation for the different degrees of azimuthal order observed for FLG on the two surfaces.
Keywords
This publication has 50 references indexed in Scilit:
- Room-Temperature Quantum Hall Effect in GrapheneScience, 2007
- The rise of grapheneNature Materials, 2007
- Electronic Confinement and Coherence in Patterned Epitaxial GrapheneScience, 2006
- Unconventional quantum Hall effect and Berry’s phase of 2π in bilayer grapheneNature Physics, 2006
- Two-dimensional gas of massless Dirac fermions in grapheneNature, 2005
- Experimental observation of the quantum Hall effect and Berry's phase in grapheneNature, 2005
- Ultrathin Epitaxial Graphite: 2D Electron Gas Properties and a Route toward Graphene-based NanoelectronicsThe Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 2004
- Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon FilmsScience, 2004
- High-resolution core-level study of 6H-SiC(0001)Physical Review B, 1996
- LEED and Auger electron observations of the SiC(0001) surfaceSurface Science, 1975