Preparation and Characterization of C60/Graphene Hybrid Nanostructures

Physical thermal deposition in a high vacuum environment is a clean and controllable method for fabricating novel molecular nanostructures on graphene. We present methods for depositing and passively manipulating C60 molecules on rippled graphene that advance the pursuit of realizing applications involving 1D C60/graphene hybrid structures. The techniques applied in this exposition are geared towards high vacuum systems with preparation areas capable of supporting molecular deposition as well as thermal annealing of the samples. We focus on C60 deposition at low pressure using a homemade Knudsen cell connected to a scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) system. The number of molecules deposited is regulated by controlling the temperature of the Knudsen cell and the deposition time. One-dimensional (1D) C60 chain structures with widths of two to three molecules can be prepared via tuning of the experimental conditions. The surface mobility of the C60 molecules increases with annealing temperature allowing them to move within the periodic potential of the rippled graphene. Using this mechanism, it is possible to control the transition of 1D C60 chain structures to a hexagonal close packed quasi-1D stripe structure.