- Physical Properties and Functionalization of Low-Dimensional Materials
- Orlando, Fabrizio
Subject
- Graphene
- Hexagonal Boron Nitride
- X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy
- Chemical Vapor Deposition
- Transition Metals
- SCUOLA DI DOTTORATO DI RICERCA IN FISICA
- FIS/03 FISICA DELLA MATERIA
Description
- 2012/2013
- Recent years have witnessed fast advancements in the research on graphene, which is one of the most active fields in condensed matter physics, chemistry and materials science. The rising interest of the scientific community in graphene, motivated by its fascinating properties and wide range of potential applications, has triggered substantial interest also on other two-dimensional (2D) atomic crystals, and particularly on hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN). In spite of much effort, a number of challenges still awaits the scientific community before the full potential of 2D atomic crystals can be exploited, such as the development of reliable methods for the growth of high-quality graphene and h-BN single layers or the possibility to tune the graphene electronic structure. The research activity I have been pursuing faces these requirements by focusing on the growth of graphene and h-BN on transition metal surfaces – which appears as the most direct route towards a scalable production of single layers with low concentration of defects – and the investigation of fundamental properties related to the presence of the metal support, but also tackles issues which have a direct link to the fabrication of carbonbased devices. In this regard, one of the first targets has been to shed light on the morphology and the electronic structure of h-BN on Ir(111), and to improve the growth strategy for the synthesis of high-quality h-BN layers. I have subsequently turned my attention to the fine tuning of graphene electronic properties by tailoring the graphene-substrate interaction through intercalation of foreign atoms at the metal interface. This was investigated in the extreme situations of weak (Ir) and strong (Ru) coupling of graphene with the metal support. I have also focused on an aspect which is related to a specific technological issue, that is, the development of an approach for the direct synthesis of graphene on insulating oxide layers. Lastly, the structural geometry of single layer graphene functionalized with nitrogen atoms, which is considered as one of the most promising approaches to manipulate graphene chemistry and induce n-doping, was also addressed. The combined use of several surface science experimental techniques has been proved to be of a powerful approach to achieve the targets of this project, having given access to the understanding of different properties of the systems under investigation.
- XXVI Ciclo
- 1985
Date
- 2014-06-16T10:59:41Z
- 2014-06-16T10:59:41Z
- 2014-03-20
Type
- Doctoral Thesis
Format
- application/pdf
Identifier
urn:nbn:it:units-12252