Graphene on Au-coated SiOx substrate: Its core-level photoelectron micro-spectroscopy study

TL;DR

This study uses synchrotron radiation photoelectron spectroscopy to analyze the electronic structure of graphene on Au-coated SiOx substrates, revealing doping effects and demonstrating a high-throughput platform for in situ graphene analysis.

Contribution

It provides detailed core-level electronic structure analysis of graphene on Au-coated SiOx using SR-PES, highlighting doping effects and the substrate's suitability for in situ studies.

Findings

Identification of graphitic and contaminated carbon states.

Observation of Au-coating-induced p-type doping.

Validation of the substrate as a high-throughput platform for in situ analysis.

Abstract

The core-level electronic structures of the exfoliated graphene sheets on a Au-coated SiOx substrate have been studied by synchrotron radiation photoelectron spectroscopy (SR-PES) on a micron-scale. The graphene was firstly demonstrated its visibility on the Au-coated SiOx substrate by micro-optical characterization, and then conducted into SR-PES study. Because of the elimination of charging effect, precise C 1s core-level characterization clearly shows graphitic and contaminated carbon states of graphene. Different levels of Au-coating-induced p-type doping on single- and double-layer graphene sheets were also examined in the C 1s core-level shift. The Au-coated SiOx substrate can be treated as a simple but high-throughput platform for in situ studying graphene under further hybridization by PES.