Structure and electronic properties of epitaxial graphene grown on SiC

TL;DR

This paper reviews advances in epitaxial graphene on SiC, focusing on growth, interface control, and the unique electronic properties of multilayer graphene with non-Bernal stacking, highlighting its potential for carbon electronics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of the development, growth techniques, and electronic behavior of epitaxial graphene on SiC, emphasizing the role of non-Bernal stacking in multilayer graphene.

Findings

Multilayer epitaxial graphene on C-face behaves like independent graphene sheets.

Rotations in stacking break graphite symmetry, preserving graphene-like electronic properties.

Growth and interface control improvements enhance potential for carbon electronic applications.

Abstract

We review progress in developing epitaxial graphene as a material for carbon electronics. In particular, improvements in epitaxial graphene growth, interface control and the understanding of multilayer epitaxial graphene's electronic properties are discussed. Although graphene grown on both polar faces of SiC is addressed, our discussions will focus on graphene grown on the (000-1) C-face of SiC. The unique properties of C-face multilayer epitaxial graphene have become apparent. These films behave electronically like a stack of nearly independent graphene sheets rather than a thin Bernal-stacked graphite sample. The origin of multilayer graphene's electronic behavior is its unique highly-ordered stacking of non-Bernal rotated graphene planes. While these rotations do not significantly affect the inter-layer interactions, they do break the stacking symmetry of graphite. It is this broken symmetry that causes each sheet to behave like an isolated graphene plane.