STM/S Observations of Graphene on SiC(0001) Etched by H-plasma

Abstract

Monolayer graphene epitaxially grown on SiC(0001) was etched by H-plasma and studied by scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. The etching created partly hexagonal nanopits of monatomic depth as well as elevated regions with a height of about 0.12 nm which are stable at $T$ = 78 K. The symmetric tunnel spectrum about the Femi energy and the absence of a $6\times 6$ corrugation on the elevated regions suggest that in these regions the carbon buffer layer is decoupled from the SiC substrate and quasi-free-standing bilayer graphene appears at originally monolayer graphene on the buffer layer. This is a result of passivation of the SiC substrate by intercalated hydrogen as in previous reports for graphene on SiC(0001) heat treated in atomic hydrogen.

6 pages, 5 figures, ACSIN-14 and ICSPM-26 proceedings

References in corpus (5)

• The electronic properties of graphene
• Energy Gaps in Graphene Nanoribbons
• Room temperature magnetic order on zigzag edges of narrow graphene nanoribbons
• Disorder Induced Localized States in Graphene
• Atomic and Electronic Structure of Si Dangling Bonds in Quasi-Free-Standing Monolayer Graphene