Grain Boundaries in Graphene on SiC(000$\bar{1}$) Substrate

Abstract

Grain boundaries in epitaxial graphene on the SiC(000$\bar{1}$) substrate are studied using scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. All investigated small-angle grain boundaries show pronounced out-of-plane buckling induced by the strain fields of constituent dislocations. The ensemble of observations allows to determine the critical misorientation angle of buckling transition ${\theta }_c=19\pm 2^{\circ }$. Periodic structures are found among the flat large-angle grain boundaries. In particular, the observed $\theta =33\pm 2^{\circ }$ highly ordered grain boundary is assigned to the previously proposed lowest formation energy structural motif composed of a continuous chain of edge-sharing alternating pentagons and heptagons. This periodic grain boundary defect is predicted to exhibit strong valley filtering of charge carriers thus promising the practical realization of all-electric valleytronic devices.

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