Time-lapsed graphene moiré superlattice on Cu(111)

Abstract

The detailed study of the graphene (gr) moiré superlattices emerging due to the mismatch between the substrate's and gr-overlayer crystal lattices is inevitable because of its high technological relevance. However, little is known about the dynamics of moiré superstructures on gr. Here, we report the first classical molecular dynamics simulation (CMD) of the moiré superlattice of graphene on Cu(111) using a new parameterized Tersoff-potential for the graphene/Cu(111) interface fitted in this paper to nonlocal van der Waals density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The interfacial force field with time-lapsed CMD provides superlattices in good quantitative agreement with the available experimental results. The long range coincidence supercells of $2\times 2$ and $3\times 3$ with nonequivalent moiré hills have also been identified and analyzed. The moiré superlattice exhibits a pattern which is dynamical rather than statically pinned to the support and can be observed mostly via time lapsing. The instantaneous snapshots of the periodic moiré pattern already at low temperature are weakly disordered lacking the apparent sharpness of the time averaged pattern and scanning tunneling microscopy images. This suggests the existence of competing orders between a static (1st order) and a dynamical (2nd order) moiré superstructures.The revealed random height fluctuations may limit the important electronic properties of supported graphene such as the mobility of charge carriers.

14 pages, 8 figures, supplementary material included. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1401.1716

References in corpus (12)

• The electronic properties of graphene
• The structure of suspended graphene sheets
• A Higher-Accuracy van der Waals Density Functional
• Giant Phonon-induced Conductance in Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy of Gate-tunable Graphene
• Limits on electron quality in suspended graphene due to flexural phonons
• Intrinsic and extrinsic corrugation of monolayer graphene deposited on SiO2
• Unit cell of graphene on Ru(0001): a 25 x 25 supercell with 1250 carbon atoms
• Breakdown of continuum mechanics for nanometer-wavelength rippling of graphene
• The random phase approximation applied to solids, molecules, and graphene-metal interfaces: From weak to strong binding regimes
• The Structure and Local Variations of the Graphene Moiré on Ir(111)
• Rotation misorientated graphene moire superlattices on Cu(111): classical molecular dynamics simulations and scanning tunneling microscopy studies
• The classical molecular dynamics simulation of graphene on Ru(0001) using a fitted Tersoff interface potential

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Moiré superlattices in strained graphene-gold hybrid nanostructures
• Atomistic mechanism of friction force independence on the normal load and other friction laws for dynamic structural superlubricity