From nanographene to monolayer graphene on 6H-SiC(0001) substrate

Graphene quantum dots, nanoribbons, and nanographene are great promising in various applications owing to the quantum confinement and edge effects. Here we evidence the presence of epitaxial nanographene on SiC. Morphology and electronic structure of the graphene layers have been analyzed by SPELEEM. Using Scanning Tunneling Microscopy, we show that the increase of relative number of clusters carbon enabled the observation of nanographene, the diameter of which was around 20 nm. This nanographene shows a honeycomb structure at atomic level. The local chemical and electronic properties of the sample have been determined by photoelectron spectroscopy using synchrotron radiation. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.