Stacking-dependent electronic property of trilayer graphene epitaxially grown on Ru(0001)

TL;DR

This study investigates how stacking variations in trilayer graphene grown on Ru(0001) influence its atomic structure and electronic properties, revealing distinct electronic signatures for different stacking orders.

Contribution

It provides detailed experimental and theoretical analysis of stacking-dependent electronic properties in trilayer graphene on Ru(0001), highlighting the impact of stacking order.

Findings

ABC- and ABB-stacked TLG show sharp peaks near the Fermi level.

The surface of TLG on Ru(0001) is flat with a hexagonal lattice.

Different stacking orders lead to distinct electronic density of states.

Abstract

The growth, atomic structure, and electronic property of trilayer graphene (TLG) on Ru(0001) were studied by low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy in combined with tight-binding approximation (TBA) calculations. TLG on Ru(0001) shows a flat surface with a hexagonal lattice due to the screening effect of the bottom two layers and the AB-stacking in the top two layers. The coexistence of AA- and AB-stacking in the bottom two layers leads to three different stacking orders of TLG, namely, ABA-, ABC-, and ABB-stacking. STS measurements combined with TBA calculations reveal that the density of states of TLG with ABC- and ABB-stacking is characterized by one and two sharp peaks near to the Fermi level, respectively, in contrast to the V-shaped feature of TLG with ABA-stacking. Our work demonstrates that TLG on Ru(0001) might be an ideal platform for exploring stacking-dependent electronic properties of graphene.