Ultrayiolet Photoelectron Spectroscopy Study Of GNR’s Growth On Au(111) Surface Using Precursor Monomer

Graphene has inspired great interests in the fields of condensed matter physics and material science since its discovery in2004. The extremely high carrier mobility in room temperature and the ability of easily being cut out make it a promising candidate for application in nanoelectronics devices in the future. However, being a zero-band-gap semiconductor, graphene cannot be used directly in semiconductor electronic, such as in field-effect transistors(FETs). So far, an efficient way to open a band gap of graphene is constricting its dimensions and creating a one-dimensional structure such as graphene nanoribbons(GNRs). So, a reliable and efficient way to fabricate GNRs reminds a challenging and significant issue in the current study. Study of the interfacial properties during preparation, such as interfacial electronic properties and structure, is really essential to fabrication methods development.In this thesis, we use10,10’-dibromo-9,9’-bianthryl as the precursor monomers to take an investigation of graphene nanoribbons on Au(111) through bottom-up fabrication under the ultra-high vacuum environment. We use Ultraviolet Photoelectron Spectroscopy(UPS) and Angle Resolved Ultraviolet Photoelectron Spectroscopy(ARUPS) to study the electron state and adsorption structure. The change of the work function was attributed to the formation of interfacial dipole between the intermediate(linear polymer) and substrate. The ARUPS data showed that the GNRs aligned themselves parallel to the Au(111) surface. Finally, combinging with the simple calculation based on density functional theory, we obtain the electron distribution corresponding to the GNRs’ UPS peaks.