Substrate induced nanoscale resistance variation in epitaxial graphene.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31992696.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-14192-0 and PMC identifier 6987157.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Graphene, the first true two-dimensional material, still reveals the most remarkable transport properties among the growing class of two-dimensional materials. Although many studies have investigated fundamental scattering processes, the surprisingly large variation in the experimentally determined resistances is still an open issue. Here, we quantitatively investigate local transport properties of graphene prepared by polymer assisted sublimation growth using scanning tunneling potentiometry. These samples exhibit a spatially homogeneous current density, which allows to analyze variations in the local electrochemical potential with high precision. We utilize this possibility by examining the local sheet resistance finding a significant variation of up to 270% at low temperatures. We identify a correlation of the sheet resistance with the stacking sequence of the 6H silicon carbide substrate and with the distance between the graphene and the substrate. Our results experimentally quantify the impact of the graphene-substrate interaction on the local transport properties of graphene.