Implantation and atomic-scale investigation of self-interstitials in graphene.

Crystallographic defects play a key role in determining the properties of crystalline materials. The new class of two-dimensional materials, foremost graphene, have enabled atomically resolved studies of defects, such as vacancies,1-4 grain boundaries,(5-7) dislocations,(8,9) and foreign atom substitutions.(10-14) However, atomic resolution imaging of implanted self-interstitials has so far been reported neither in any three-dimensional nor in any two-dimensional material.