Amjad Al Taleb

Phonon dynamics of graphene on metals.

The study of surface phonon dispersion curves is motivated by the quest for a detailed understanding of the forces between the atoms at the surface and in the bulk. In the case of graphene, additional motivation comes from the fact that thermal conductivity is dominated by contributions from acoustic phonons, while optical phonon properties are essential to understand Raman spectra. In this article, we review recent progress made in the experimental determination of phonon dispersion curves of graphene grown on several single-crystal metal surfaces. The two main experimental techniques usually employed are high-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (HREELS) and inelastic helium atom scattering (HAS). The different dispersion branches provide a detailed insight into the graphene-substrate interaction. Softening of optical modes and signatures of the substrates Rayleigh wave are observed for strong graphene-substrate interactions, while acoustic phonon modes resemble those of free-standing graphene for weakly interacting systems. The latter allows determining the bending rigidity and the graphene-substrate coupling strength. A comparison between theory and experiment is discussed for several illustrative examples. Perspectives for future experiments are discussed.

Quality of graphene on sapphire: long-range order from helium diffraction versus lattice defects from Raman spectroscopy

We report a new method to produce high-quality, transparent graphene/sapphire samples, using Cu as a catalyst. The starting point is a high-quality graphene layer prepared by CVD on Cu(111)/Al2O3. Graphene on sapphire is obtained in situ by evaporation of the Cu film in UHV. He-diffraction, atomic force microscopy (AFM), Raman spectroscopy and optical transmission have been used to assess the quality of graphene in a metal free area. We used helium atom scattering as a sensitive probe of the crystallinity of the graphene on sapphire. The observation of high reflectivity and clear diffraction peaks demonstrates the presence of flat and homogeneous graphene domains over lateral scales of microns, consistent with the AFM results. Surprisingly, putting graphene on sapphire improves the quality of the He-diffraction spectra. Graphene forms a moire pattern with a (11 × 11) periodicity, aligned with the (1 × 1) sapphire unit cell. The lattice constant of graphene on sapphire is a = (2.44 ± 0.02) A. The phonon dispersion of the graphene flexural mode has been measured. This allowed the determination of the bending rigidity k = 0.61 ± 0.15 eV, and the graphene–sapphire coupling strength g = (5.8 ± 0.4) × 1019 N m−3. The uniformity of the graphene has also been investigated by Raman mapping. Judging by the ratio of the 2D to G peaks, the quality of the graphene is not degraded by Cu removal. The high transparency (80%) measured in the visible range makes this system suitable for many applications that require hybrid properties commonly associated with metals (conductivity) and insulators (transparency). Our study shows that He-diffraction and Raman provide crucial information on quite different, complementary aspects of the same samples.

Initial Sticking Coefficient of H2 on the Pd–Cu(111) Surface Alloy at very Low Coverages

Abstract We present an experimental study of the initial dissociative sticking probability of H2 on the Pd–Cu(111) surface alloy at Pd coverages between 1–10%. The measurements have been performed using a supersonic molecular beam with an incident energy range Ei = 75–163 meV. In agreement with a recent STM study, our results confirm that small amounts of Pd atoms significantly increase the reactivity of the inert Cu(111) surface, although the measured initial sticking probability values were found to be much lower than the ones estimated from the STM work. For a Pd coverage of 1% and Ei ∼ 0.10 eV, the H2 initial sticking probability was found to be 2 × 10−3, increasing to 4 × 10−3 for a Pd coverage of 10%. This agrees well with a recent molecular dynamics study, in which the initial sticking probability was estimated in 7 × 10−3 for a Pd coverage of 11% and Ei ∼ 0.15–0.20 eV. Essentially the same values were measured in the whole incident energy range investigated. Therefore, our results support the main conclusion of the molecular dynamics calculations about the mechanism leading to the increase of reactivity of the Pd–Cu(111) surface alloy, which combines a lower activation energy barrier for dissociation of ∼ 0.25 eV on top of substitutional Pd atoms with spillover onto the Cu(111) surface.

Low-energy methane scattering from Pt(111).

We have measured the temperature dependence of angular distributions of CH4 from Pt(111) at an incident energy of 109 meV. A broad angular distribution has been observed along the two main symmetry directions, whereby the peak center shifts from the supra-specular position to the sub-specular position when the surface temperature increases from 120 K to 800 K. Different widths have been measured for the scattering patterns along the [ 1¯01 ] and the [ 2¯11 ] azimuthal directions. Based on calculations performed within the binary collision model, these differences have been ascribed to different corrugations of the CH4-Pt(111) interaction potential along the two high-symmetry directions. This corrugation has been estimated from the model calculations to amount ∼0.03 Å, a factor of three larger than the one measured with helium diffraction.

Ultrasmooth metal thin films on curved fused silica by laser polishing

The fabrication of atomically smooth metal films on supporting oxides is a quite demanding task, since most physical vapor deposition methods used on metals do not work properly on oxide substrates. Here, we report an alternative procedure, based on performing laser polishing of a fused silica substrate before depositing the metallic thin film. This reduces the RMS surface roughness of fused silica by ca. 33%, and increases the maximum grain size of the metallic film from 200 nm to 1200 nm. The method has been applied to a fused silica parabolic lens, which has been coated with a graphene-terminated Ru thin film. The reduction of surface roughness caused by laser polishing leads to the formation of ultrasmooth Ru thin films. Crystallinity and subnanometer roughness of the metal coating are demonstrated by the observation of He diffraction from a macroscopically curved surface.