1. SURFACE NANOSCIENCE Prof. Lorenzo S. Caputi Surface Nanoscience Group
Department of Physics, University of Calabria

2. Ultra-high vacuum equipments
UHV Laboratory
Materials Laboratory

3. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM)

5. Low Energy Electron Diffraction
Nanoscienza di Superficie - UHV
Low Energy Electron Diffraction
X/ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy
Auger Electron Spectroscopy

6. Main Electron Spectroscopies
AES, XPS -> surface composition
UPS -> electronic structure
LEED -> long range surface order
EELS, HREELS -> collective electronic properties (plasmons), vibrational properties (phonons, molecular vibrational modes)

7. Main Scientific Interests
Surface properties of materials
Catalysts
Oxides
Synthesis and study of nanomaterials
Carbon nanotubes
Epitaxial Graphene (bottom-up)
Graphene oxide (top-down)

8. Why Graphene?

9. CARBON GRAPHITE DIAMOND 2004: GRAPHENE Physics Nobel Price in 2010
1985: fullerens
Chemistry Nobel
Prize in 1996
1991:
Carbon Nanotubes

10. GRAPHENE 2010:
around 3000 papers
around 400 patents

11. Graphene: basic constituent of fullerens, nanotubes and graphite.

12. Graphene: tridimensional band structure
Dirac cones
Graphene: tridimensional band structure

13. Linearity of the dispersion curve at Dirac points
Electrons behave as Dirac fermions without mass
At low energies, electrons in graphene have a Fermi-Dirac speed
of about c/300

14. Peculiarities of graphene
The thinnest material.
Highest surface/mass ratio (2600 m2/g).
Strongest material (Young modulus 1.0 TPa).
Highest current density at room temperature (about 103 times with respect to copper).
Highest thermal conductivity (5.3x103 WmK-1).
Impermeable to gases.
Highest electron mean free path at room temperature ( nm).
Highly transparent (absorbs about 2% in the visible).

15. Graphene production
bottom-up
top-down

16. Graphite oxidation
in collaboration with ITM-CNR

17. Graphite oxidation
in collaboration with ITM-CNR

18. Electron Spectroscopy applied to Graphene Oxide
5.8 eV
p-plasmon
Reflection EELS
Intensity (arb. units)
5.0 eV
Transmission EELS
on single-layer GO
Energy loss (eV)

19. Thank you for your attention