Oxygen switching of the epitaxial graphene-metal interaction

Using photoemission spectroscopy techniques, we show that oxygen intercalation is achieved on an extended layer of epitaxial graphene on Ir(111), which results in the "lifting" of the graphene layer and in its decoupling from the metal substrate. The oxygen adsorption below graphene proceeds as on clean Ir(111), giving only a slightly higher oxygen coverage. Upon lifting, the C 1s signal shows a downshift in binding energy, due to the charge transfer to graphene from the oxygen-covered metal surface. Moreover, the characteristic spectral signatures of the graphene-substrate interaction in the valence band are removed, and the spectrum of strongly hole-doped, quasi free-standing graphene with a single Dirac cone around the K point is observed. The oxygen can be deintercalated by annealing, and this process takes place at around T = 600 K, in a rather abrupt way. A small amount of carbon atoms is lost, implying that graphene has been etched. After deintercalation graphene restores its interaction with the Ir(111) substrate. Additional intercalation/deintercalation cycles readily occur at lower oxygen doses and temperatures, consistently with an increasingly defective lattice. Our findings demonstrate that oxygen intercalation is an efficient method for fully decoupling an extended layer of graphene from a metal substrate, such as Ir(111). They pave the way for the fundamental research on graphene, where extended, ordered layers of free-standing graphene are important and, due to the stability of the intercalated system in a wide temperature range, also for the advancement of next-generation graphene-based electronics.