UCL Discovery Stage
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery Stage

Structure of graphene and a surface carbide grown on the (0001) surface of rhenium

Mazaleyrat, E; Pozzo, M; Alfè, D; Artaud, A; Herrero, ACG; Lisi, S; Guisset, V; ... Coraux, J; + view all (2020) Structure of graphene and a surface carbide grown on the (0001) surface of rhenium. Physical Review Materials , 4 (12) , Article 124002. 10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.4.124002. Green open access

[thumbnail of PhysRevMaterials.4.124002.pdf]
Preview
Text
PhysRevMaterials.4.124002.pdf - Published Version

Download (3MB) | Preview

Abstract

Transition metal surfaces catalyze a broad range of thermally activated reactions involving carbon-containing species, from atomic carbon to small hydrocarbons or organic molecules, and polymers. These reactions yield well-separated phases, for instance graphene and the metal surface, or, on the contrary, alloyed phases, such as metal carbides. Here, we investigate carbon phases on a rhenium (0001) surface, where the former kind of phase can transform into the latter. We find that this transformation occurs with increasing annealing time, which is hence not suitable to increase the quality of graphene. Our scanning tunneling spectroscopy and reflection high-energy electron diffraction analysis reveal that repeated short annealing cycles are best suited to increase the lateral extension of the structurally coherent graphene domains. Using the same techniques and with the support of density functional theory calculations, we next unveil, in real space, the symmetry of the many variants (two sixfold families) of a rhenium surface carbide observed with diffraction since the 1970s, and finally propose models of the atomic details. One of these models, which nicely matches the microscopy observations, consists of parallel rows of eight aligned carbon trimers with a so-called ( 7 × √ 19 ) unit cell with respect to Re(0001).

Type: Article
Title: Structure of graphene and a surface carbide grown on the (0001) surface of rhenium
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.4.124002
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.4.124002
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Earth Sciences
URI: https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10115637
Downloads since deposit
5,330Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item