A pathway between Bernal and rhombohedral stacked graphene layers with scanning tunneling microscopy
Abstract
Horizontal shifts in the top layer of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite, induced by a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tip, are presented. Excellent agreement is found between STM images and those simulated using density functional theory. First-principle calculations identify that the low-energy barrier direction of the top layer displacement is toward a structure where none of the carbon pz orbitals overlap, while the high-energy barrier direction is toward AA stacking. Each directional shift yields a real-space surface charge density similar to graphene; however, the low-energy barrier direction requires only one bond length to convert ABA (Bernal) to ABC (rhombohedral).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- May 14, 2012
- Source ID
- 10.1063/1.4716475
Entities
People
- D. Qi
- J. K. Schoelz
- L. Bellaiche
- M. L. Ackerman
- P. M. Thibado
- Peipeng Xu
- S. D. Barber
- Salvador Barraza-lopez
- Tobias Bothwell
- Yurong Yang
Organizations
- Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
- Office of Naval Research
- University of Arkansas