title: Kinetics of graphene formation on Rh(111) investigated by in situ scanning tunneling microscopy.
abstract: In situ scanning tunneling microscopy observations of graphene formation on Rh(111) show that the moiré pattern between the lattices of the overlayer and substrate has a decisive influence on the growth. The process is modulated in the large unit cells of the moiré pattern. We distinguish two steps: the addition of a unit cell that introduces one or more new kinks and the addition of further unit cells that merely advance the position of an existing kink. Kink creation is the rate-limiting step, with kink creation at small-angle, concave corners in the graphene overlayer exhibiting the lower barrier.
authors.affiliation: Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory, Leiden University, PO Box 9504, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Guocai
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: Joost W M
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Frenken