Third Party Funds Group - Sub project
Start date : 01.10.2010
End date : 31.10.2016
The properties of metal contacts and their influence on the structural, electronic and transport properties of graphene is of great importance for further development of graphene based electronic devices and sensors. In this project low-temperature ultra-high-vacuum Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) and Spectroscopy will be used to study the interface between different metals and epitaxial graphene layers grown on silicon carbide (SiC) single crystals at the atomic scale. The project aims at investigating electron transport across a metal/graphene interface by Ballistic Emission Electron Microscopy (BEEM), Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (KPFM), and Scanning Tunnelling Potentiometry (STP). With the latter two methods also electron transport in the graphene layer will be studied. These experiments will lead to a microscopic picture of how contact resistances develop and what properties of the graphene and of associated interfaces (metal/graphene and graphene/substrate) influence electron transport on the atomic scale. The properties of the graphene-SiC interface will be modified by metal intercalation.