Intercalation of air-stable monolayer Pb into EG/SiC by confinement heteroepitaxy (CHet) enables study of heavy metal films at the extreme limit of thinness with complementary microscopy and spectroscopy. Pb coverages up to 90% can be achieved at elevated temperatures beyond those of conventional ultrahigh vacuum methods. CHet-based Pb exhibits a Frenkel- Kontorova domain boundary network due to lateral compressive stress relief within a (1 × 1) Pb/SiC model, which can be seen experimentally as a (10 × 10) superstructure. Anticipating a large spin polarizability, we leverage uniformly intercalated Gr/Pb/SiC as a basal layer for a ST-FMR measurement, discovering a 1.5× increase in the effective field ratio over a hydrogenated sample and consistency with C3v symmetry. Intercalation of Pb in EG/SiC is thus a promising material platform for ex situ spin transport phenomena.
Center for Nanoscale Science
The center supports collaborative, interdisciplinary research efforts on nanoscale materials. Principal research activities are organized into two interdisciplinary research groups: 2D Polar Metals & Heterostructures and Crystalline Oxides with High Entropy.