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Thermal Stability of Corrugated Epitaxial Graphene Grown on Re(0001)

Single layer epitaxial Graphene on Re has been studied using photoelectron spectroscopy and density functional calculations, exploring the complex relationship between corrugation in graphene and its thermal stability. LEEM and microprobe-LEED were here used to address the growth and structure of graphene. Most importantly, this study reports on a novel approach to determine the relationship between the corrugation and the thermal stability of epitaxial graphene grown on a strongly interacting substrate. According to density functional theory calculations, the C single layer grown on Re(0001) is strongly corrugated, with a buckling of 1.6 Å, yielding a simulated C 1s core level spectrum which is in excellent agreement with the experimental one. We found that corrugation is closely knit with the thermal stability of the C

network: C-C bond breaking is favored in the strongly buckled regions of the moiré cell, though it requires the presence of diffusing graphene layer vacancies. Our data shows that there is a close relationship between graphene corrugation and its thermal stability, a key achievement in sight of the potential high temperature applications of supported graphene.

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Thermal Stability of Corrugated Epitaxial Graphene Grown on Re(0001);
E. Miniussi, M. Pozzo, A. Baraldi, E. Vesselli, R. R. Zhan, G. Comelli, T.O. Menteş, M.Á. Niño, A. Locatelli, S. Lizzit, and D. Alfè;
Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 216101 (2011).
10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.216101

Last Updated on Friday, 04 November 2011 10:15