Optical Imaging and Spectroscopic Characterization of Self-Assembled Environmental Adsorbates on Graphene.

Gallagher, Patrick; Li, Yilei; Watanabe, Kenji; Taniguchi, Takashi; Heinz, Tony F; Goldhaber-Gordon, David · Nano Lett · 2018

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Topographic studies using scanning probes have found that graphene surfaces are often covered by micron-scale domains of periodic stripes with a 4 nm pitch. These stripes have been variously interpreted as structural ripples or as self-assembled adsorbates. We show that the stripe domains are optically anisotropic by imaging them using a polarization-contrast technique. Optical spectra between 1.1 and 2.8 eV reveal that the anisotropy in the in-plane dielectric function is predominantly real, reaching 0.6 for an assumed layer thickness of 0.3 nm. The spectra are incompatible with a rippled graphene sheet but would be quantitatively explained by the self-assembly of chainlike organic molecules into nanoscale stripes.