Dresden 2020 – scientific programme

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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik

O 26: Poster Session - Graphene: Growth, Structure and Substrate Interaction

O 26.2: Poster

Monday, March 16, 2020, 18:15–20:00, P1A

Reducing the step bunching during the growth of epitaxial graphene on silicon carbide — •Robert Appel, Richard Hönig, Philipp Weinert, and Carsten Westphal — Experimentelle Physik I, TU Dortmund, Otto-Hahn-Strasse 4a, 44227 Dortmund, Germany

Epitaxial graphene (EG) has attracted significant interest in the recent years due to the simple preparation method by heating silicon carbide (0001). One drawback of this approach is step bunching (SB) that leads to large terraces and tall step heights. These tall steps result in anisotropic electronic and magnetic properties of EG. In order to restore the electronic and magnetic properties of graphene, samples with shallow steps are desirable. The (6√3 × 6√3)R30^∘-reconstruction (so-called buffer layer (BL)) of the SiC(0001) that forms while heating constrains the SB. Therefore, a fast formation of the BL is of utmost importance.

We use the confinement controlled sublimation (CCS) method in argon atmosphere because it is known for reproducibility and tunability. Thus, it is a promising method to find the ideal parameters for fast BL formation. Kruskopf et al. demonstrated the preparation of EG with shallow steps and less SB by using a high heating rate, a short heating time and a high preparation temperature.

In this study, we explore the applicability of the CCS method in order to obtain similar results with shallow steps and less SB. For this purpose, we systematically modify the preparation parameters and characterize the obtained samples with atomic force microscopy.