Monolayer charge-neutral graphene on platinum with extremely weak electron-phonon coupling

TL;DR

This paper reports the successful growth of monolayer, charge-neutral graphene on platinum with extremely weak electron-phonon coupling, achieved through controlled epitaxial growth and detailed by spectroscopic and computational analysis.

Contribution

It demonstrates a method for growing high-quality, electronically decoupled graphene on platinum with minimal substrate interaction, enabling advanced fundamental and device research.

Findings

Graphene is nearly charge neutral on Pt(111).

Electron-phonon coupling strength is extremely weak (λ ≈ 0.056).

DFT calculations elucidate carbon diffusion mechanisms.

Abstract

Epitaxial growth of graphene on transition metal substrates is an important route for obtaining large scale graphene. However, the interaction between graphene and the substrate often leads to multiple orientations, distorted graphene band structure, large doping and strong electron-phonon coupling. Here we report the growth of monolayer graphene with high crystalline quality on Pt(111) substrate by using a very low concentration of an internal carbon source with high annealing temperature. The controlled growth leads to electronically decoupled graphene: it is nearly charge neutral and has extremely weak electron-phonon coupling (coupling strength $\lambda$ $\approx$ 0.056) as revealed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopic measurements. The thermodynamics and kinetics of the carbon diffusion process is investigated by DFT calculation. Such graphene with negligible graphene-substrate interaction provides an important platform for fundamental research as well as device applications when combined with a nondestructive sample transfer technique.