Role of Local Conductivities in the Plasmon Reflections at the Edges and Stacking Domain Boundaries of Trilayer Graphene.

We employed infrared scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (IR-sSNOM) to study surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in trilayer graphene (TLG). Our study reveals systematic differences in near-field IR spectra and SPP wavelengths between Bernal (ABA) and rhombohedral (ABC) TLG domains on SiO, which can be explained by stacking-dependent intraband conductivities. We also observed that the SPP reflection profiles at ABA-ABC boundaries could be mostly accounted for by an idealized domain boundary defined by the conductivity discontinuity.

Molecular vibrational imaging at nanoscale.

The demand to visualize the spatial distribution of chemical species based on vibrational spectra is rapidly increasing. Driven by such a need, various Raman and infrared spectro-microscopies with a nanometric spatial resolution have been developed over the last two decades. Despite rapid progress, a large gap still exists between the general needs and what these techniques can achieve.

Mapping of Bernal and non-Bernal stacking domains in bilayer graphene using infrared nanoscopy.

Bilayer graphene (BLG) shows great potential as a new material for opto-electronic devices because its bandgap can be controlled by varying the stacking orders, as well as by applying an external electric field. An imaging technique that can visualize and characterize various stacking domains in BLG may greatly help in fully utilizing such properties of BLG. Here we demonstrate that infrared (IR) scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (sSNOM) can visualize Bernal and non-Bernal stacking domains of BLG, based on the stacking-specific inter- and intra-band optical conductivities.