No Arabic abstract
We present density functional theory (DFT) calculations for 6H-SiC${0001}$ surfaces with different surface stackings and terminations. We compare the relative stability of different $(0001)$ and $(000bar1)$ surfaces in terms of their surface free energies. Removing surface and subsurface Si atoms, we simulate the formation of graphene and graphene-like overlayers by Si evaporation. We find that overlayers with a different nature of bonding are preferred at the two non-equivalent surface orientations. At $(0001)$, a chemically bonded, highly strained and buckled film is predicted. At $(000bar1)$, a van der Waals (vdW) bonded overlayer is preferred. We quantify the vdW binding and show that it can have a doping effect on electron behavior in the overlayer.
The thermal decomposition of SiC surface provides, perhaps, the most promising method for the epitaxial growth of graphene on a material useful in the electronics platform. Currently, efforts are focused on a reliable method for the growth of large-area, low-strain epitaxial graphene that is still lacking. We report here a novel method for the fast, single-step epitaxial growth of large-area homogeneous graphene film on the surface of SiC(0001) using an infrared CO2 laser (10.6 {mu}m) as the heating source. Apart from enabling extreme heating and cooling rates, which can control the stacking order of epitaxial graphene, this method is cost-effective in that it does not necessitate SiC pre-treatment and/or high vacuum, it operates at low temperature and proceeds in the second time scale, thus providing a green solution to EG fabrication and a means to engineering graphene patterns on SiC by focused laser beams. Uniform, low-strain graphene film is demonstrated by scanning electron microscopy and x-ray photoelectron, secondary ion mass, and Raman spectroscopies. Scalability to industrial level of the method described here appears to be realistic, in view of the high rate of CO2-laser induced graphene growth and the lack of strict sample-environment conditions.
The early stages of epitaxial graphene layer growth on the Si-terminated 6H-SiC(0001) are investigated by Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and depolarized Raman spectroscopy. The selection of the depolarized component of the scattered light results in a significant increase in the C-C bond signal over the second order SiC Raman signal, which allows to resolve submonolayer growth, including individual, localized C=C dimers in a diamond-like carbon matrix for AES C/Si ratio of $sim$3, and a strained graphene layer with delocalized electrons and Dirac single-band dispersion for AES C/Si ratio $>$6. The linear strain, measured at room temperature, is found to be compressive, which can be attributed to the large difference between the coefficients of thermal expansion of graphene and SiC. The magnitude of the compressive strain can be varied by adjusting the growth time at fixed annealing temperature.
This paper has been withdrawn due to the adherance to the double submission policies of a refereed journal. Our apologies.
The Kondo effect typically arises from the spin-flip scattering between the localized magnetic moment of the impurity and the delocalized electrons in the metallic host, which leads to a variety of intriguing phenomena. Here, by using scanning tunnelling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS), we present the Kondo effect and subatomic features of single U adatom on graphene/6H-SiC(0001). A dip spectral feature can be observed around the Fermi energy, which is termed as the fingerprint of the Kondo resonance in STS; in addition, two subatomic features with different symmetries: a three-lobe structure and a donghnut-like structure can be observed from the dI/dV maps. The Kondo resonance is only detectable within 5~AA~of the lateral distance from the U atom center, which is much smaller than the distances observed in Co atoms on different surfaces, indicating the more localized 5$f$ states than 3$d$ orbitals. By comparing with density functional theory calculations, we find that the two subatomic features displaying different symmetries originate from the selective hybridization between U 6$d$, 5$f$ orbitals and the $p_z$ orbitals from two inequivalent C atoms of the multilayer graphene.
Up to two layers of epitaxial graphene have been grown on the Si-face of two-inch SiC wafers exhibiting room-temperature Hall mobilities up to 1800 cm^2/Vs, measured from ungated, large, 160 micron x 200 micron Hall bars, and up to 4000 cm^2/Vs, from top-gated, small, 1 micron x 1.5 micron Hall bars. The growth process involved a combination of a cleaning step of the SiC in a Si-containing gas, followed by an annealing step in Argon for epitaxial graphene formation. The structure and morphology of this graphene has been characterized using AFM, HRTEM, and Raman spectroscopy. Furthermore, top-gated radio frequency field effect transistors (RF-FETs) with a peak cutoff frequency fT of 100 GHz for a gate length of 240 nm were fabricated using epitaxial graphene grown on the Si face of SiC that exhibited Hall mobilities up to 1450 cm^2/Vs from ungated Hall bars and 1575 cm^2/Vs from top-gated ones. This is by far the highest cut-off frequency measured from any kind of graphene.