Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy of the electronic local density of states of graphite surfaces near monoatomic step edges
By Y. Niimi, T. Matsui, H. Kambara, K. Tagami, M. Tsukada, H. Fukuyama. 2006
385 citations recorded by the source corpus.
We measured the electronic local density of states (LDOS) of graphite surfaces near monoatomic step edges, which consist of either the zigzag or armchair edge, with the scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS) techniques. The STM data reveal that the $(\sqrt{3}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}\sqrt{3})R30\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}$ and honeycomb superstructures coexist over a length scale of $3--4\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{nm}$ from both the edges. By comparing with density-functional derived nonorthogonal tight-binding calculations, we show that the coexistence is due to a slight admixing of the two types of edges at the graphite surfaces. In the STS measurements, a clear peak in the LDOS at negative bias voltages from $\ensuremath{-}100$ to $\ensuremath{-}20\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{mV}$ was observed near the zigzag edges, while such a peak was not observed near the armchair edges. We concluded that this peak corresponds to the graphite ``edge state'' theoretically predicted by Fujita et al. [J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 65, 1920 (1996)] with a tight-binding model for graphene ribbons. The existence of the edge state only at the zigzag type edge was also confirmed by our first-principles calculations with different edge terminations.
Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Materials Chemistry
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b7e926c8521df84d48cbd178a7d77ae995b87a41
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In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
- Franco Nori
- V. Perebeinos
- Zhihong Chen
- Phaedon Avouris
- Y. Bliokh
- V. Freilikher
- G. Giavaras
- Joseph W. Lyding
In Materials Chemistry
- Zhihong Chen
- V. Perebeinos
- Phaedon Avouris
- Jens Martin
- Timm Lohmann
- Jurgen Hubert Smet
- G. Giavaras
- Franco Nori
Citations in the corpus
- First principle calculations of the electronic properties of nitrogen-doped carbon nanoribbons with zigzag edges (2008, neutral): “Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) images of graphene sheets have revealed bright stripes along its edges, suggesting a high density of edge states near the Fermi level [17,18].”
- Observation of electron–hole puddles in graphene using a scanning single-electron transistor (2007, methodology): “Previous scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) studies on bulk graphite surfaces in strong magnetic fields already demonstrated the power of local methods to probe this class of material”
- Electronic properties of mesoscopic graphene structures: Charge confinement and control of spin and charge transport (2011, background): “These edge states can be observed experimentally as a peak in the local density of states [44, 53, 54].”