Premium
Cover Picture: Phys. Status Solidi RRL 6/2009
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
physica status solidi (rrl) – rapid research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.786
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1862-6270
pISSN - 1862-6254
DOI - 10.1002/pssr.200990007
Subject(s) - cover (algebra) , graphene , scanning tunneling microscope , substrate (aquarium) , ab initio , materials science , condensed matter physics , nanotechnology , crystallography , physics , chemistry , quantum mechanics , mechanical engineering , engineering , oceanography , geology
The Rapid Research Letter by L. Magaud et al. on p. 172 ff. focuses on the effect of the SiC substrate on the atomic and electronic structure of graphene. Exploiting graphene's intrinsic properties requires to find a substrate that supports it without deteriorating it. The effect of the SiC substrate varies with the face (Si or C) and the surface reconstruction. Among the different possibilities, ab initio calculations and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) experiments reveal that the SiC C face is close to the ideal substrate that preserves graphene's fascinating properties. A ball and stick model of the (2 × 2) reconstruction of the C face is shown in the left side of the cover picture. The corresponding ab initio calculation (center) yields a vanishing charge density between graphene and SiC, thus indicating weak interaction. As a consequence, the first C layer exhibits graphene properties and especially a well‐defined honeycomb lattice as can be seen in the STM image (upper right) and the ab initio partial charge (lower right figure).