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arXiv · 2404.19389

Electronic decoupling and hole-doping of graphene nanoribbons on metal substrates by chloride intercalation

Amogh Kinikar·Thorsten G. Englmann·Marco Di Giovannantonio·Nicolò Bassi·Feifei Xiang·Samuel Stolz·Roland Widmer·Gabriela Borin Barin·Elia Turco·Néstor Merino Díez·Kristjan Eimre·Andres Ortega Guerrero·Xinliang Feng·Oliver Gröning·Carlo A. Pignedoli·Roman Fasel·Pascal Ruffieux
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Abstract

Atomically precise graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) have a wide range of electronic properties that depend sensitively on their chemical structure. Several types of GNRs have been synthesized on metal surfaces through selective surface-catalyzed reactions. The resulting GNRs are adsorbed on the metal surface, which may lead to hybridization between the GNR orbitals and those of the substrate. This makes investigation of the intrinsic electronic properties of GNRs more difficult, and also rules out capacitive gating. Here we demonstrate the formation of a dielectric gold chloride adlayer that can intercalate underneath GNRs on the Au(111) surface. The intercalated gold chloride adlayer electronically decouples the GNRs from the metal and leads to a substantial hole doping of the GNRs. Our results introduce an easily accessible tool in the in situ characterization of GNRs grown on Au(111) that allows for exploration of their electronic properties in a heavily hole-doped regime.

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Amogh Kinikar, Thorsten G. Englmann, Marco Di Giovannantonio, Nicolò Bassi, Feifei Xiang, Samuel Stolz, Roland Widmer, Gabriela Borin Barin, Elia Turco, Néstor Merino Díez, Kristjan Eimre, Andres Ortega Guerrero, Xinliang Feng, Oliver Gröning, Carlo A. Pignedoli, Roman Fasel, Pascal Ruffieux. 2024-04-30. Electronic decoupling and hole-doping of graphene nanoribbons on metal substrates by chloride intercalation. https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.19389

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