Multiscale investigation of graphene layers on 6H-SiC(000-1)

Antoine Tiberj (1) , Jean-Roch Huntzinger (1) , Jean Camassel (1) , Fanny Hiebel , Ather Mahmood , Pierre Mallet (2) , Cécile Naud (3) , Jean-Yves Veuillen (2)

1 L2C - Laboratoire Charles Coulomb
2 NEEL - QuNES - Nano-Electronique Quantique et Spectroscopie
3 NEEL - QuantECA - Circuits électroniques quantiques Alpes

In this article, a multiscale investigation of few graphene layers grown on 6H-SiC(000-1) under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions is presented. At 100-mu m scale, the authors show that the UHV growth yields few layer graphene (FLG) with an average thickness given by Auger spectroscopy between 1 and 2 graphene planes. At the same scale, electron diffraction reveals a significant rotational disorder between the first graphene layer and the SiC surface, although well-defined preferred orientations exist. This is confirmed at the nanometer scale by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Finally, STM (at the nm scale) and Raman spectroscopy (at the mu m scale) show that the FLG stacking is turbostratic, and that the domain size of the crystallites ranges from 10 to 100 nm. The most striking result is that the FLGs experience a strong compressive stress that is seldom observed for graphene grown on the C face of SiC substrates.

Mots clés: FILMS; GRAPHITE; EPITAXIAL GRAPHENE; RAMAN-SPECTROSCOPY

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

Antoine Tiberj, Jean-Roch Huntzinger, Jean Camassel, Fanny Hiebel, Ather Mahmood, et al.. Multiscale investigation of graphene layers on 6H-SiC(000-1). Nanoscale Research Letters, 2011, 6, pp.171. ⟨10.1186/1556-276X-6-171⟩. ⟨hal-00666156⟩