title: Local electronic properties of graphene on a BN substrate via scanning tunneling microscopy.
abstract: The use of boron nitride (BN) as a substrate for graphene nanodevices has attracted much interest since the recent report that BN greatly improves the mobility of charge carriers in graphene compared to standard SiO(2) substrates. We have explored the local microscopic properties of graphene on a BN substrate using scanning tunneling microscopy. We find that BN substrates result in extraordinarily flat graphene layers that display microscopic Moiré patterns arising from the relative orientation of the graphene and BN lattices. Gate-dependent dI/dV spectra of graphene on BN exhibit spectroscopic features that are sharper than those obtained for graphene on SiO(2). We observe a significant reduction in local microscopic charge inhomogeneity for graphene on BN compared to graphene on SiO(2).
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States. regis.decker@gmail.com
authors.forename: Régis
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Decker
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Victor W
authors.initials: VW
authors.lastname: Brar
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Regan
authors.forename: Hsin-Zon
authors.initials: HZ
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: Qiong
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gannett
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zettl
authors.forename: Michael F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Crommie
mesh_terms: D001896:Boron Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D004583:Electrons; D006108:Graphite / Q000737:chemistry*; D016252:Microscopy, Scanning Tunneling; D010316:Particle Size; D012822:Silicon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D001896:Boron Compounds; C017282:boron nitride; D012822:Silicon Dioxide; D006108:Graphite