Oberflächenphysikalische Untersuchungen zur Graphen-Substrat Wechselwirkung

Graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms, exhibits unique electronic properties and successfully acts as a pioneer in the field of two-dimensional material systems. Reliable and scalable synthesis methods as well as understanding of the underlying processes are essential to fully exploit the potential of these materials. Apart from that, due to the two-dimensional nature of these systems, the interaction with a substrate surface easily affects their properties and simultaneously allows to manipulate them. This thesis presents a detailed study of graphene layers grown by polymer-assisted sublimation growth on different SiC polytypes. Different surface terminations of the hexagonal 4H and 6H SiC polytype alter the electronic properties of the graphene layer. This also shows up as differences in the electron reflectivity, for which possible explanations are discussed, e.g. the influence of the spontaneous polarization of the hexagonal polytypes. Dislocations and stacking domains in epitaxial monolayer and bilayer graphene are identified by means of darkfield microscopy and point towards strain between the successive layers. In monolayer graphene, thin dislocation lines indicate uniaxial strain, while larger, triangular stacking domains in bilayer graphene are the result of isotropic strain between the two graphene layers. Epitaxial monolayer graphene is transformed into quasi-freestanding bilayer graphene by hydrogen intercalation, which alters the strain between the layers such that the typical bilayer stacking domains emerge. Graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition frequently shows a wrinkled surface, which can be attributed to the formation of surface facets. The structure of these facets is imprinted in the graphene layers, which maintain this structure even after the transfer onto an epitaxial buffer layer. The surface restructuring of the growth substrate is driven by the graphene formation itself as the surface facets undergo a step bunching with increasing graphene coverage. In bilayer graphene stacking ...