Graphene on the C-terminated SiC (000 ̄1) surface: An ab initio study

Laurence Magaud (1) , Fanny Hiebel , François Varchon , Pierre Mallet (2) , Jean-Yves Veuillen (2)

1 NEEL - Quan2m - Interactions modulables dans des états quantiques 2D
2 NEEL - QuNES - Nano-Electronique Quantique et Spectroscopie

The atomic and electronic structures of a graphene layer on top of the (2 × 2) reconstruction of the SiC (000 ̄1) surface are studied from ab initio calculations. At variance with the (0001) face, no C bufferlayer is found here. Si adatoms passivate the substrate surface so that the very first C layer presents a linear dispersion characteristic of graphene. A small graphene-substrate interaction remains in agreement with scanning tunneling experiments (F.Hiebel et al. Phys. Rev. B 78 153412 (2008)). The stacking geometry has little influence on the interaction which explains the rotational disorder observed on this face.

Mots clés: SiC; Silicon carbide; Graphite thin film; STM; DFT; Graphite; Graphene

Domaines: Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Laurence Magaud, Fanny Hiebel, François Varchon, Pierre Mallet, Jean-Yves Veuillen. Graphene on the C-terminated SiC (000 ̄1) surface: An ab initio study. Physical Review B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics (1998-2015), 2009, 79 (16), pp.161405(R). ⟨10.1103/PhysRevB.79.161405⟩. ⟨hal-00728421⟩