Helium reflectivity and Debye temperature of graphene grown epitaxially on Ru(0001)

Abstract

It is shown that the surface of an epitaxial graphene monolayer grown on Ru(0001) could be used as a quite efficient external mirror for He-atom microscopy, with a specular reflectivity of 20% of the incident beam. Furthermore, the system is stable up to 1150 K, and the He reflectivity remains almost unchanged after exposure to air. Additionally, the high reflectivity for H2 molecules (11%) opens up the development of a H2 microprobe suitable for lithography. The Debye temperature for this epitaxial graphene monolayer has been determined from a study of the temperature dependence of the He specular intensity as a function of incident parameters. A value of 1045 K has been obtained, which is much higher than the 590 K reported for graphite under similar conditions, and close to the value of 1287 K calculated for isolated graphene