No Arabic abstract
Graphene oxide can be used as a precursor to graphene but the quality of graphene flakes is highly heterogeneous. Scanning-Raman-Microscopy (SRM) is used to characterize films of graphene derived from flakes of graphene oxide with an almost intact carbon framework (ai-GO). The defect density of these flakes is visualized in detail by analyzing the intensity and full-width at half-maximum of the most pronounced Raman peaks. In addition, we superimpose the SRM results with AFM images and correlate the spectroscopic results with the morphology. Furthermore, we use SRM technique to display the amount of defects in a film of graphene. Thus, an area of 250 x 250 {my}m2 of graphene is probed with a step-size increment of 1 {mu}m. We are able to visualize the position of graphene flakes, edges and the substrate. Finally, we alter parameters of measurement to analyze the quality of graphene fast and reliable. The described method can be used to probe and visualize the quality of graphene films.
While offering unprecedented resolution of atomic and electronic structure, Scanning Probe Microscopy techniques have found greater challenges in providing reliable electrostatic characterization at the same scale. In this work, we introduce Electrostatic Discovery Atomic Force Microscopy, a machine learning based method which provides immediate quantitative maps of the electrostatic potential directly from Atomic Force Microscopy images with functionalized tips. We apply this to characterize the electrostatic properties of a variety of molecular systems and compare directly to reference simulations, demonstrating good agreement. This approach opens the door to reliable atomic scale electrostatic maps on any system with minimal computational overhead.
Epitaxial graphene grown on transition metal surfaces typically exhibits a moire pattern due to the lattice mismatch between graphene and the underlying metal surface. We use both scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) experiments to probe the electronic and topographic contrast of the graphene moire on the Ir(111) surface. While STM topography is influenced by the local density of states close to the Fermi energy and the local tunneling barrier height, AFM is capable of yielding the true surface topography once the background force arising from the van der Waals (vdW) interaction between the tip and the substrate is taken into account. We observe a moire corrugation of 35$pm$10 pm, where the graphene-Ir(111) distance is the smallest in the areas where the graphene honeycomb is atop the underlying iridium atoms and larger on the fcc or hcp threefold hollow sites.
For the first time, the magnetic force microscopy (MFM) is used to characterize the mechanically-exfoliated single- and few-layer MoS2 and graphene nanosheets. By analysis of the phase and amplitude shifts, the magnetic response of MoS2 and graphene nanosheets exhibits the dependence on their layer number. However, the solution-processed single-layer MoS2 nanosheet shows the reverse magnetic signal to the mechanically-exfoliated one, and the graphene oxide nanosheet has not shown any detectable magnetic signal. Importantly, graphene and MoS2 flakes become nonmagnetic when they exceed a certain thickness.
We employ electrostatic force microscopy to study the electrostatic environment of graphene sheets prepared with the micro-mechanical exfoliation technique. We detect the electric dipole of residues left from the adhesive tape during graphene preparation, as well as the dipole of water molecules adsorbed on top of graphene. Water molecules form a dipole layer that can generate an electric field as large as 10^9 V/m. We expect that water molecules can significantly modify the electrical properties of graphene devices.
Moire superlattices in van der Waals heterostructures are gaining increasing attention because they offer new opportunities to tailor and explore unique electronic phenomena when stacking 2D materials with small twist angles. Here, we reveal local surface potentials associated with stacking domains in twisted double bilayer graphene (TDBG) moire superlattices. Using a combination of both lateral Piezoresponse Force Microscopy (LPFM) and Scanning Kelvin Probe Microscopy (SKPM), we distinguish between Bernal (ABAB) and rhombohedral (ABCA) stacked graphene and directly correlate these stacking configurations with local surface potential. We find that the surface potential of the ABCA domains is ~15 mV higher (smaller work function) than that of the ABAB domains. First-principles calculations based on density functional theory further show that the different work functions between ABCA and ABAB domains arise from the stacking dependent electronic structure. We show that, while the moire superlattice visualized by LPFM can change with time, imaging the surface potential distribution via SKPM appears more stable, enabling the mapping of ABAB and ABCA domains without tip-sample contact-induced effects. Our results provide a new means to visualize and probe local domain stacking in moire superlattices along with its impact on electronic properties.