Unravelling the role of inelastic tunneling into pristine and defected graphene

TL;DR

This paper introduces a first principles method to analyze inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy (IETS) in graphene, highlighting the importance of phonon modes and defect signatures for accurate interpretation of experimental data.

Contribution

It presents a novel computational approach for IETS in graphene, accounting for phonon modes and defect effects, improving interpretation of experimental STM images.

Findings

Reproduces experimental IETS data for pristine graphene

Identifies characteristic fingerprints for graphene defects

Shows suppression of elastic tunneling affects STM image interpretation

Abstract

We present a first principles method for calculating the inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy (IETS) on gated graphene. We reproduce experiments on pristine graphene and point out the importance of including several phonon modes to correctly estimate the local doping from IETS. We demonstrate how the IETS of typical imperfections in graphene can yield characteristic fingerprints revealing e.g. adsorbate species or local buckling. Our results show how care is needed when interpreting STM images of defects due to suppression of the elastic tunneling on graphene.