High Electron Mobility in Epitaxial Trilayer Graphene on Off-axis SiC(0001)

International audienceThe van de Waals heterostructure formed by an epitaxial trilayer graphene is of particular interest due to its unique tunable electronic band structure and stacking sequence. However, to date, there has been a lack in the fundamental understanding of the electronic properties of epitaxial trilayer graphene. Here, we investigate the electronic properties of large-area epitaxial trilayer graphene on a 4° off-axis SiC(0001) substrate. Micro-Raman mappings and atomic force microscopy (AFM) confirmed predominantly trilayer on the sample obtained under optimized conditions. We used angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations to study in detail the structure of valence electronic states, in particular the dispersion of π bands in reciprocal space and the exact determination of the number of graphene layers. Using far-infrared magneto-transmission (FIR-MT), we demonstrate, that the electron cyclotron resonance (CR) occurs between Landau levels with a (B)1/2 dependence. The CR line-width is consistent with a high Dirac fermions mobility of ~3000 cm2·V−1·s−1 at 4 K