Nanoscale Infrared and Microwave Imaging of Stacking Faults in Multilayer Graphene

Graphite exhibits a range of metastable stacking orders, with the number of possible configurations increasing exponentially with the number of layers. Most experimental studies have focused on Bernal and rhombohedral stacking due to the difficulty of identifying and isolating intermediate stacking orders. Motivated by this challenge, we present two atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques that unambiguously distinguish stacking orders and defects in graphite flakes. Photothermal infrared AFM provides absolute contrast through IR spectral analysis across multiple wavelengths, while scanning microwave impedance microscopy reveals relative contrast among Bernal, intermediate, and rhombohedral domains. We demonstrate that both techniques provide high-contrast identification of stacking orders, are compatible with subsurface imaging through a hexagonal boron nitride dielectric layer, and can resolve nanoscale domain walls. These results pave the way for reliable fabrication of multilayer graphene devices with a well-defined interlayer registry.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nano Letters
Published
2025-08-08
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c02301
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Graphene research and applications
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.52

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Nanoscale Infrared and Microwave Imaging of Stacking Faults in Multilayer Graphene

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Nanoscale Infrared and Microwave Imaging of Stacking Faults in Multilayer Graphene

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article en
1 citations

Abstract

Graphite exhibits a range of metastable stacking orders, with the number of possible configurations increasing exponentially with the number of layers. Most experimental studies have focused on Bernal and rhombohedral stacking due to the difficulty of identifying and isolating intermediate stacking orders. Motivated by this challenge, we present two atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques that unambiguously distinguish stacking orders and defects in graphite flakes. Photothermal infrared AFM provides absolute contrast through IR spectral analysis across multiple wavelengths, while scanning microwave impedance microscopy reveals relative contrast among Bernal, intermediate, and rhombohedral domains. We demonstrate that both techniques provide high-contrast identification of stacking orders, are compatible with subsurface imaging through a hexagonal boron nitride dielectric layer, and can resolve nanoscale domain walls. These results pave the way for reliable fabrication of multilayer graphene devices with a well-defined interlayer registry.

Nano LettersVol. 25(33)
University of California, Santa Barbara (US), Bruker (United States) (US), National Institute for Materials Science (JP), Bruker (Switzerland) (CH)
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Division of Materials Research, Air Force Office of Scientific Research
Openalex Percentile: Top 35%
Graphene research and applications
0.52
DOISourceOpenAlex
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