2008/08/13 by D. Martoccia, P. R. Willmott, Thomas Brugger +15 · 289 citations
Chemistry · Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advancements in Battery Materials #Boron and Carbon Nanomaterials Research #Chemistry #Crystallography #Geology #Graphene #Graphene research and applications #Materials science #Molecule #Nanotechnology #Physics #Substrate (aquarium) #Superstructure #Thermodynamics #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #van der Waals force
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.101.126102
published in Physical Review Letters 101(12), 126102 (American Physical Society) · 9 pages, 3 figures, paper submitted to peer reviewed journal
arxiv created 2008/08/13 · openalex publication_date 2008/09/19 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The structure of a single layer of graphene on Ru(0001) has been studied using surface x-ray diffraction. A surprising superstructure containing 1250 carbon atoms has been determined, whereby 25 x 25 graphene unit cells lie on 23 x 23 unit cells of Ru. Each supercell contains 2 x 2 crystallographically inequivalent subcells caused by corrugation. Strong intensity oscillations in the superstructure rods demonstrate that the Ru substrate is also significantly corrugated down to several monolayers and that the bonding between graphene and Ru is strong and cannot be caused by van der Waals bonds. Charge transfer from the Ru substrate to the graphene expands and weakens the C-C bonds, which helps accommodate the in-plane tensile stress. The elucidation of this superstructure provides important information in the potential application of graphene as a template for nanocluster arrays.