Graphene on C-terminated face of 4H-SiC observed by noncontact scanning nonlinear dielectric potentiometry

We studied graphene synthesized on the C-terminated face (C-face) of a 4H-SiC substrate by noncontact scanning nonlinear dielectric potentiometry. As already reported by other researchers, multilayer graphene sheets with moire patterns were observed in our sample, which indicates the existence of rotational disorder between adjacent layers. We found that the potentials of graphene on the C-face are almost neutral and significantly smaller than those observed on the Si-terminated face (Si-face). In addition, the neutrality of potentials is not affected by various topographic features underlying the multilayer graphene sheets. These results indicate that graphene on the C-face of SiC is decoupled or screened from the underlying structures and substrate, unlike graphene on the Si-face. (C) 2016 The Japan Society of Applied Physics