Vertical structure of Sb-intercalated quasifreestanding graphene on SiC(0001)

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.106.155418

Authors: You-Ron Lin (Peter Grünberg Institut (PGI-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich; Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA); RWTH Aachen University) , Susanne Wolff (TU Chemnitz) , Philip Schädlich (TU Chemnitz) , Mark Hutter (Peter Grünberg Institut (PGI-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich; Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA); RWTH Aachen University) , Serguei Soubatch (Peter Grünberg Institut (PGI-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich; Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA)) , Tien-Lin Lee (Diamond Light Source) , F. Stefan Tautz (Peter Grünberg Institut (PGI-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich; Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA); RWTH Aachen University) , Thomas Seyller (TU Chemnitz) , Christian Kumpf (Peter Grünberg Institut (PGI-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich; Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA); RWTH Aachen University) , Francois Bocquet (Peter Grünberg Institut (PGI-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich; Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA))
Co-authored by industrial partner: No

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: Physical Review B , VOL 106

State: Published (Approved)
Published: October 2022
Diamond Proposal Number(s): 18398

Abstract: Using the normal incidence x-ray standing-wave technique as well as low-energy electron microscopy we have investigated the structure of quasifreestanding monolayer graphene (QFMLG) obtained by intercalation of antimony under the ( 6 √ 3 × 6 √ 3 ) R 30 ∘ reconstructed graphitized 6 H -SiC(0001) surface, also known as zeroth-layer graphene. We found that Sb intercalation decouples the QFMLG well from the substrate. The distance from the QFMLG to the Sb layer almost equals the expected van der Waals bonding distance of C and Sb. The Sb intercalation layer itself is monoatomic, flat, and located much closer to the substrate, at almost the distance of a covalent Sb-Si bond length. All data is consistent with Sb located on top of the uppermost Si atoms of the SiC bulk.

Subject Areas: Materials, Physics


Instruments: I09-Surface and Interface Structural Analysis

Added On: 26/10/2022 10:02

Discipline Tags:

Hard condensed matter - electronic properties Physics Materials Science

Technical Tags:

Diffraction X-ray Standing Wave (XSW)