Morphology of graphene thin film growth on SiC(0001)

TL;DR

This study investigates the morphology and layer identification of epitaxial graphene films on SiC(0001) using LEEM and ARPES, demonstrating LEEM's effectiveness in determining local layer thickness.

Contribution

It introduces a combined LEEM and ARPES approach for accurate identification and characterization of graphene layers on SiC(0001).

Findings

LEEM can distinguish single and bilayer graphene.

LEEM spectra correlate with ARPES PI-band features.

LEEM accurately measures local graphene layer thickness.

Abstract

Epitaxial films of graphene on SiC(0001) are interesting from a basic physics as well as applications-oriented point of view. Here we study the emerging morphology of in-vacuo prepared graphene films using low energy electron microscopy (LEEM) and angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES). We obtain an identification of single and bilayer of graphene film by comparing the characteristic features in electron reflectivity spectra in LEEM to the PI-band structure as revealed by ARPES. We demonstrate that LEEM serves as a tool to accurately determine the local extent of graphene layers as well as the layer thickness.