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Continuous wafer-scale graphene on cubic-SiC(001)

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Abstract

The atomic and electronic structure of graphene synthesized on commercially available cubic-SiC(001)/Si(001) wafers have been studied by low energy electron microscopy (LEEM), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), low energy electron diffraction (LEED), and angle resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES). LEEM and STM data prove the wafer-scale continuity and uniform thickness of the graphene overlayer on SiC(001). LEEM, STM and ARPES studies reveal that the graphene overlayer on SiC(001) consists of only a few monolayers with physical properties of quasi-freestanding graphene. Atomically resolved STM and micro-LEED data show that the top graphene layer consists of nanometersized domains with four different lattice orientations connected through the 〈110〉-directed boundaries. ARPES studies reveal the typical electron spectrum of graphene with the Dirac points close to the Fermi level. Thus, the use of technologically relevant SiC(001)/Si(001) wafers for graphene fabrication represents a realistic way of bridging the gap between the outstanding properties of graphene and their applications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Solid State Physics RAS, Chernogolovka, Moscow District, 142432, Russia

    Alexander N. Chaika & Victor Yu. Aristov

  2. Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN), School of Physics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

    Alexander N. Chaika & Igor V. Shvets

  3. HASYLAB at DESY, D-22607, Hamburg, Germany

    Olga V. Molodtsova & Victor Yu. Aristov

  4. MAX-lab, Lund University, Box 118, 22100, Lund, Sweden

    Alexei A. Zakharov

  5. Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, D-12489, Berlin, Germany

    Dmitry Marchenko, Jaime Sánchez-Barriga & Andrei Varykhalov

Authors
  1. Alexander N. Chaika
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  2. Olga V. Molodtsova
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  3. Alexei A. Zakharov
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Correspondence to Alexander N. Chaika.

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Chaika, A.N., Molodtsova, O.V., Zakharov, A.A. et al. Continuous wafer-scale graphene on cubic-SiC(001). Nano Res. 6, 562–570 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-013-0331-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-013-0331-9

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