Disordered Electrical Potential Observed on the Surface of SiO${}_2$ by Electric Field Microscopy

Abstract

The electrical potential on the surface of $\sim 300$ nm thick SiO${}_2$ grown on single crystalline Si substrates has been characterized at ambient conditions using electric field microscopy. Our results show an inhomogeneous potential distribution with fluctuations up to $\sim 0.4$V within regions of $1\mu$m. The potential fluctuations observed at the surface of these usual dielectric holders of graphene sheets should induce strong variations in the graphene charge densities and provide a simple explanation for some of the anomalous behaviors of the transport properties of graphene.

4 pages and 4 figures

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Cited by in corpus (2)

• Interfacial interactions between local defects in amorphous SiO${}_2$ and supported graphene
• Ballistic transport at room temperature in micrometer size multigraphene