| AVS 58th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Graphene and Related Materials Focus Topic | Monday Sessions |
| Session GR+TF+ET-MoA |
| Session: | Graphene: Electronic Properties and Charge Transport |
| Presenter: | Lyudmyla Adamska, University of South Florida |
| Authors: | L. Adamska, University of South Florida R.Q. Addou, University of South Florida A. Dahal, University of South Florida M. Batzill, University of South Florida I.I. Oleynik, University of South Florida |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Graphene-substrate interactions can be exploited to modify the electronic structure of free-standing graphene. Although most of the efforts were directed towards investigation of graphene on pure metallic substrates, less is known about properties of graphene grown on surface alloys. Sn/Ni(111) surface alloy is of particular interest because this structure has the surface lattice constant of Ni(111), i.e. almost a perfect match with graphene’s lattice constant, and its surface is highly corrugated due to the substantially large atomic radius of Sn compared to Ni. Here we present results of first-priniciples density functional theory investigations of structural and electronic properties of graphene on sqrt(3)xsqrt(3)R(30) Sn/Ni alloy substrate. It was found that the presence of Sn atoms (1/3 monolayer) results in substantial weakening of graphene-substrate interactions, as is evidenced by large graphene-substrate separation. Nevertheless, the electronic structure of graphene is substantially affected by the underlying substrate as is as seen on simulated STM images. The theoretical predictions for the atomic and electronic structures of graphene on Sn/Ni(111) substrate are compared with experimental results.