PhD Thesis Defense- Nestor Merino

Published: Urria 31, 2019

On-Surface Synthesis and Electronic Structure Characterization of Graphene Nanoribbons

Candidate: Nestor Merino

Supervisors: Dimas García de Oteyza and José Ignacio Pascual Chico

Research groups:

Nanophysics Laboratory (CFM) and
NanoImaging group (CIC nanoGUNE)

When: November 12, 2019 (11:00h)

Where: CFM AUDITORIUM

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Summary

This thesis presents a detailed study on the surface synthesis of graphite nanotyres (Graphene Nanoribbons, GNRs) and the subsequent characterization of their electronic structure, mainly using Low temperature-Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy/Spectrosocopy (LT-STM/STS) in ultra-high vacuum (UHV) conditions as analytical technique.

The work carried out during this thesis is framed within the scientific field known as ‘nanoscience’, defined as the branch of science focused on the study of physical-chemical phenomena that occur in systems whose properties are governed by the dimensions that define them, including these between 1 and 100 nanometers. One material that magnificently illustrates this new revolution in science is graphene. This thesis details the surface synthesis, by means of surface chemistry techniques, of different types of graphene nanoribbons, as well as the subsequent characterisation of their electronic structure.

Representative image of the electronic structure of narrow chiral graphene nanoribbons: Conductance tunneling (foreground) spectrum and (background) 3D maps of (left) valence and (right) conduction bands, together with a bond-resolved STM image (middle) of narrow chiral graphene nanoribbon