Tailoring the SiC surface - a morphology study on the epitaxial growth of graphene and its buffer layer

We investigate the growth of the graphene buffer layer and the involved step bunching behavior of the silicon carbide substrate surface using atomic force microscopy. The formation of local buffer layer domains are identified to be the origin of undesirably high step edges in excellent agreement with the predictions of a general model of step dynamics. The applied polymer-assisted sublimation growth method demonstrates that the key principle to suppress this behavior is the uniform nucleation of the buffer layer. In this way, the silicon carbide surface is stabilized such that ultra-flat surfaces can be conserved during graphene growth on a large variety of silicon carbide substrate surfaces. The analysis of the experimental results describes different growth modes which extend the current understanding of epitaxial graphene growth by emphasizing the importance of buffer layer nucleation and critical mass transport processes.