Electrical properties of the graphene/4H-SiC (0001) interface probed by scanning current spectroscopy

• The current transport across the graphene/4H-SiC interface has been investigated with nanometric lateral resolution by scanning current spectroscopy on both epitaxial graphene (EG) grown on (0001) 4H-SiC and graphene exfoliated from highly oriented pyrolytic graphite deposited on the same substrate [deposited graphene (DG)]. This study reveals that the Schottky barrier height (SBH) of EG/4H-SiC (0.36 +/- 0.1 eV) is similar to 0.49 eV lower than the SBH of DG/4H-SiC (0.85 +/- 0.06 eV). This result is discussed in terms of the Fermi-level pinning similar to 0.49 eV above the Dirac point in EG due to the presence of positively charged states at the interface between the Si face of 4H-SiC and the carbon-rich buffer layer, which is the precursor for EG formation.

Keyword

electric properties

epitaxial layers

Fermi level

graphene

interface structure

nanostructured materials

Schottky barriers

silicon compounds

TECHNOLOGY

TEKNIKVETENSKAP

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)