Playing graphene nanodrums: force spectroscopy of graphene on Ru(0001)

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that atomic force spectroscopy can directly measure graphene corrugation on metal substrates, aligning with theoretical models, and investigates the elastic response of graphene nanodomes during indentation for nanoresonator applications.

Contribution

It introduces a direct experimental method to measure graphene corrugation on metals and analyzes the elastic behavior of graphene nanodomes under indentation.

Findings

AFS measurements match theoretical corrugation values

Elastic response of graphene nanodomes characterized

Implications for graphene-based nanoresonators

Abstract

Graphene, a thinnest material in the world, can form moire structures on different substrates, including graphite, h-BN, or metal surfaces. In such systems the structure of graphene, i. e. its corrugation, as well as its electronic and elastic properties are defined by the combination of the system geometry and local interaction strength at the interface. The corrugation in such structures on metals is heavily extracted from diffraction or local probe microscopy experiments and can be obtained only via comparison with theoretical data, which usually simulate the experimental findings. Here we show that graphene corrugation on metals can be measured directly employing atomic force spectroscopy and obtained value coincides with state-of-the-art theoretical results. We also address the elastic reaction of the formed graphene nanodoms on the indentation process by the scanning tip that is important for the modeling and fabrication of graphene-based nanoresonators on the nanoscale.