Ultrathin oxide/graphene heterostructures

Ultrathin oxide/graphene heterostructures Graphene interfaced with oxide ultrathin films is a particularly appealing system for the development of new devices, since the dielectric layer can be used to modulate the physical properties of the carbon monolayer. Furthermore, graphene can be used as a template to synthesize novel two-dimensional oxide materials.[1] Despite such an extreme technological and scientific interest, only few successful examples of sharp graphene/oxide interfaces have been reported so far, since the growth of atomically flat ultrathin oxide films on the honeycomb monolayer is hampered by the extremely low surface free energy of graphene, which promotes the nucleation of three-dimensional clusters. Here, by using standard surface science techniques, I will analyze the structural, chemical and electronic properties of transition metals oxide (CrxOy and FexOy) and rare earths oxide (ErxOy )ultrathin films grown on the graphene/Ni(111) substrate.[2,3] The experimental results reveal a rich variety of graphene heterostructures, depending on the element used and the synthesis procedure. [1] Netzer, F. P.; Surnev, S. Oxide Materials at the Two-Dimensional Limit; Springer, (2016) [2] Lodesani, A. ; Picone, A.; Brambilla, A.; Giannotti, D.; Jagadeesh, M.S.; Calloni, A.; Bussetti, G.; Berti, G.; Zani, M.; Finazzi, M.; Duò, L.; Ciccacci, F. Graphene as an Ideal Buffer Layer for the Growth of HighQuality Ultrathin Cr 2 O 3 Layers on Ni(111) , ACS Nano 13, 4361-4367 (2019) [3] A. Picone, A. Lodesani, M. Capra, A. Brambilla, F. Bottegoni, M. Jugovac, A.K. Kundu, P. Sheverdyaeva, P. Moras From Cr carbide to Cr oxide through a graphene layer Appl. Surf. Sci., 599 (2022), Article 153926