arXiv subjects

Thomas Seyller

Publications and source records attributed to Thomas Seyller.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Substrate induced nanoscale resistance variation in epitaxial graphene

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 associated with a localized defect is still an open issue. Here, we quantitatively investigate the local transport properties of graphene prepared by polymer assisted sublimation growth (PASG) using scanning tunneling potentiometry. PASG graphene is characterized by 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-SiC substrate as well as with the distance between the graphene sheet and the substrate. Our results experimentally quantify the strong impact of the graphene-substrate interaction on the local transport properties of graphene.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Comeback of epitaxial graphene for electronics: large-area growth of bilayer-free graphene on SiC

We present a new fabrication method for epitaxial graphene on SiC which enables the growth of ultra-smooth defect- and bilayer-free graphene sheets with an unprecedented reproducibility, a necessary prerequisite for wafer-scale fabrication of high quality graphene-based electronic devices. The inherent but unfavorable formation of high SiC surface terrace steps during high temperature sublimation growth is suppressed by rapid formation of the graphene buffer layer which stabilizes the SiC surface. The enhanced nucleation is enforced by decomposition of polymer adsorbates which act as a carbon source. With most of the steps well below 0.75 nm pure monolayer graphene without bilayer inclusions is formed with lateral dimensions only limited by the size of the substrate. This makes the polymer assisted sublimation growth technique the most promising method for commercial wafer scale epitaxial graphene fabrication. The extraordinary electronic quality is evidenced by quantum resistance metrology at 4.2 K with until now unreached precision and high electron mobilities on mm scale devices.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2016

Manifestation of nonlocal electron-electron interaction in graphene

Graphene is an ideal platform to study many-body effects due to its semimetallic character and the possibility to dope it over a wide range. Here we study the width of graphene's occupied $π$-band as a function of doping using angle-resolved photoemission. Upon increasing electron doping, we observe the expected shift of the band to higher binding energies. However, this shift is not rigid and the bottom of the band moves less than the Dirac point. We show that the observed shift cannot be accounted for by band structure calculations in the local density approximation but that non-local exchange interactions must be taken into account.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Ultrafast Electron Dynamics in Epitaxial Graphene Investigated with Time- and Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy

In order to exploit the intriguing optical properties of graphene it is essential to gain a better understanding of the light-matter interaction in the material on ultrashort timescales. Exciting the Dirac fermions with intense ultrafast laser pulses triggers a series of processes involving interactions between electrons, phonons and impurities. Here we study these interactions in epitaxial graphene supported on silicon carbide (semiconducting) and iridium (metallic) substrates using ultrafast time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (TR-ARPES) based on high harmonic generation. For the semiconducting substrate we reveal a complex hot carrier dynamics that manifests itself in an elevated electronic temperature and an increase in linewidth of the $π$ band. By analyzing these effects we are able to disentangle electron relaxation channels in graphene. On the metal substrate this hot carrier dynamics is found to be severely perturbed by the presence of the metal, and we find that the electronic system is much harder to heat up than on the semiconductor due to screening of the laser field by the metal.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Tunable Carrier Multiplication and Cooling in Graphene

Time- and angle-resolved photoemission measurements on two doped graphene samples displaying different doping levels reveal remarkable differences in the ultrafast dynamics of the hot carriers in the Dirac cone. In the more strongly ($n$-)doped graphene, we observe larger carrier multiplication factors ($>$ 3) and a significantly faster phonon-mediated cooling of the carriers back to equilibrium compared to in the less ($p$-)doped graphene. These results suggest that a careful tuning of the doping level allows for an effective manipulation of graphene's dynamical response to a photoexcitation.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Ramifications of Optical Pumping on the Interpretation of Time-Resolved Photoemission Experiments on Graphene

In pump-probe time and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (TR-ARPES) experiments the presence of the pump pulse adds a new level of complexity to the photoemission process in comparison to conventional ARPES. This is evidenced by pump-induced vacuum space-charge effects and surface photovoltages, as well as multiple pump excitations due to internal reflections in the sample-substrate system. These processes can severely affect a correct interpretation of the data by masking the out-of-equilibrium electron dynamics intrinsic to the sample. In this study, we show that such effects indeed influence TR-ARPES data of graphene on a silicon carbide (SiC) substrate. In particular, we find a time- and laser fluence-dependent spectral shift and broadening of the acquired spectra, and unambiguously show the presence of a double pump excitation. The dynamics of these effects is slower than the electron dynamics in the graphene sample, thereby permitting us to deconvolve the signals in the time domain. Our results demonstrate that complex pump-related processes should always be considered in the experimental setup and data analysis.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Ultrafast Dynamics of Massive Dirac Fermions in Bilayer Graphene

Bilayer graphene is a highly promising material for electronic and optoelectronic applications since it is supporting massive Dirac fermions with a tuneable band gap. However, no consistent picture of the gap's effect on the optical and transport behavior has emerged so far, and it has been proposed that the insulating nature of the gap could be compromised by unavoidable structural defects, by topological in-gap states, or that the electronic structure could be altogether changed by many-body effects. Here we directly follow the excited carriers in bilayer graphene on a femtosecond time scale, using ultrafast time- and angle-resolved photoemission. We find a behavior consistent with a single-particle band gap. Compared to monolayer graphene, the existence of this band gap leads to an increased carrier lifetime in the minimum of the lowest conduction band. This is in sharp contrast to the second sub-state of the conduction band, in which the excited electrons decay through fast, phonon-assisted inter-band transitions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Strong plasmon reflection at nanometer-size gaps in monolayer graphene on SiC

We employ tip-enhanced infrared near-field microscopy to study the plasmonic properties of epitaxial quasi-free-standing monolayer graphene on silicon carbide. The near-field images reveal propagating graphene plasmons, as well as a strong plasmon reflection at gaps in the graphene layer, which appear at the steps between the SiC terraces. When the step height is around 1.5 nm, which is two orders of magnitude smaller than the plasmon wavelength, the reflection signal reaches 20% of its value at graphene edges, and it approaches 50% for step heights as small as 5 nm. This intriguing observation is corroborated by numerical simulations, and explained by the accumulation of a line charge at the graphene termination. The associated electromagnetic fields at the graphene termination decay within a few nanometers, thus preventing efficient plasmon transmission across nanoscale gaps. Our work suggests that plasmon propagation in graphene-based circuits can be tailored using extremely compact nanostructures, such as ultra-narrow gaps. It also demonstrates that tip-enhanced near-field microscopy is a powerful contactless tool to examine nanoscale defects in graphene.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Fabry-Perot enhanced Faraday rotation in graphene

We demonstrate that giant Faraday rotation in graphene in the terahertz range due to the cyclotron resonance is further increased by constructive Fabry-Perot interference in the supporting substrate. Simultaneously, an enhanced total transmission is achieved, making this effect doubly advantageous for graphene-based magneto-optical applications. As an example, we present far-infrared spectra of epitaxial multilayer graphene grown on the C-face of 6H-SiC, where the interference fringes are spectrally resolved and a Faraday rotation up to 0.15 radians (9°) is attained. Further, we discuss and compare other ways to increase the Faraday rotation using the principle of an optical cavity.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Direct view on the ultrafast carrier dynamics in graphene

The ultrafast dynamics of excited carriers in graphene is closely linked to the Dirac spectrum and plays a central role for many electronic and optoelectronic applications. Harvesting energy from excited electron-hole pairs, for instance, is only possible if these pairs can be separated before they lose energy to vibrations, merely heating the lattice. While the hot carrier dynamics in graphene could so far only be accessed indirectly, we here present a direct time-resolved view on the Dirac cone by angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES). This allows us to show the quasi-instant thermalisation of the electron gas to a temperature of more than 2000 K; to determine the time-resolved carrier density; to disentangle the subsequent decay into excitations of optical phonons and acoustic phonons (directly and via supercollisions); and to show how the presence of the hot carrier distribution affects the lifetime of the states far below the Fermi energy.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Annealing-induced magnetic moments detected by spin precession measurements in epitaxial graphene on SiC

We present results of non-local and three terminal (3T) spin precession measurements on spin injection devices fabricated on epitaxial graphene on SiC. The measurements were performed before and after an annealing step at 150 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes in vacuum. The values of spin relaxation length L_s and spin relaxation time tau_s obtained after annealing are reduced by a factor 2 and 4, respectively, compared to those before annealing. An apparent discrepancy between spin diffusion constant D_s and charge diffusion constant D_c can be resolved by investigating the temperature dependence of the g-factor, which is consistent with a model for paramagnetic magnetic moments.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Visualizing Atomic-Scale Negative Differential Resistance in Bilayer Graphene

We investigate the atomic-scale tunneling characteristics of bilayer graphene on silicon carbide using the scanning tunneling microscopy. The high-resolution tunneling spectroscopy reveals an unexpected negative differential resistance (NDR) at the Dirac energy, which spatially varies within the single unit cell of bilayer graphene. The origin of NDR is explained by two near-gap van Hove singularities emerging in the electronic spectrum of bilayer graphene under a transverse electric field, which are strongly localized on two sublattices in different layers. Furthermore, defects near the tunneling contact are found to strongly impact on NDR through the electron interference. Our result provides an atomic-level understanding of quantum tunneling in bilayer graphene, and constitutes a useful step towards graphene-based tunneling devices.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Detecting the local transport properties and the dimensionality of transport of epitaxial graphene by a multi-point probe approach

The electronic transport properties of epitaxial monolayer graphene (MLG) and hydrogen-intercalated quasi free-standing bilayer graphene (QFBLG) on SiC(0001) are investigated by micro multi-point probes. Using a probe with 12 contacts, we perform four-point probe measurements with the possibility to effectively vary the contact spacing over more than one order of magnitude, allowing us to establish that the transport is purely two-dimensional. Combined with the carrier density obtained by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we find the room temperature mobility of MLG to be (870+-120)cm2/Vs. The transport in QFBLG is also found to be two-dimensional with a mobility of (1600+-160) cm2/Vs.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Electron-phonon coupling in quasi free-standing graphene

Quasi free-standing monolayer graphene can be produced by intercalating species like oxygen or hydrogen between epitaxial graphene and the substrate crystal. If the graphene is indeed decoupled from the substrate, one would expect the observation of a similar electronic dispersion and many-body effects, irrespective of the substrate and the material used to achieve the decoupling. Here we investigate the electron-phonon coupling in two different types of quasi free-standing monolayer graphene: decoupled from SiC via hydrogen intercalation and decoupled from Ir via oxygen intercalation. Both systems show a similar overall behaviour of the self-energy and a weak renormalization of the bands near the Fermi energy. The electron-phonon coupling is found to be sufficiently weak to make the precise determination of the coupling constant lambda through renormalization difficult. The estimated value of lambda is 0.05(3) for both systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Small scale rotational disorder observed in epitaxial graphene on SiC(0001)

Interest in the use of graphene in electronic devices has motivated an explosion in the study of this remarkable material. The simple, linear Dirac cone band structure offers a unique possibility to investigate its finer details by angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES). Indeed, ARPES has been performed on graphene grown on metal substrates but electronic applications require an insulating substrate. Epitaxial graphene grown by the thermal decomposition of silicon carbide (SiC) is an ideal candidate for this due to the large scale, uniform graphene layers produced. The experimental spectral function of epitaxial graphene on SiC has been extensively studied. However, until now the cause of an anisotropy in the spectral width of the Fermi surface has not been determined. In the current work we show, by comparison of the spectral function to a semi-empirical model, that the anisotropy is due to small scale rotational disorder ($\sim\pm$ 0.15$^{\circ}$) of graphene domains in graphene grown on SiC(0001) samples. In addition to the direct benefit in the understanding of graphene's electronic structure this work suggests a mechanism to explain similar variations in related ARPES data.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Implanted Bottom Gate for Epitaxial Graphene on Silicon Carbide

We present a technique to tune the charge density of epitaxial graphene via an electrostatic gate that is buried in the silicon carbide substrate. The result is a device in which graphene remains accessible for further manipulation or investigation. Via nitrogen or phosphor implantation into a silicon carbide wafer and subsequent graphene growth, devices can routinely be fabricated using standard semiconductor technology. We have optimized samples for room temperature as well as for cryogenic temperature operation. Depending on implantation dose and temperature we operate in two gating regimes. In the first, the gating mechanism is similar to a MOSFET, the second is based on a tuned space charge region of the silicon carbide semiconductor. We present a detailed model that describes the two gating regimes and the transition in between.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2011

Effective screening and the plasmaron bands in Graphene

Electron-plasmon coupling in graphene has recently been shown to give rise to a "plasmaron" quasiparticle excitation. The strength of this coupling has been predicted to depend on the effective screening, which in turn is expected to depend on the dielectric environment of the graphene sheet. Here we compare the strength of enviromental screening for graphene on four different substrates by evaluating the separation of the plasmaron bands from the hole bands using Angle Resolved PhotoEmission Spectroscopy. Comparison with G0W-RPA predictions are used to determine the effective dielectric constant of the underlying substrate layer. We also show that plasmaron and electronic properties of graphene can be independently manipulated, an important aspect of a possible use in "plasmaronic" devices.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

High-Transconductance Graphene Solution-Gated Field Effect Transistors

In this work, we report on the electronic properties of solution-gated field effect transistors (SGFETs) fabricated using large-area graphene. Devices prepared both with epitaxially grown graphene on SiC as well as with chemical vapor deposition grown graphene on Cu exhibit high transconductances, which are a consequence of the high mobility of charge carriers in graphene and the large capacitance at the graphene/water interface. The performance of graphene SGFETs, in terms of gate sensitivity, is compared to other SGFET technologies and found to be clearly superior, confirming the potential of graphene SGFETs for sensing applications in electrolytic environments.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗