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We review the progress towards developing epitaxial graphene as a material for carbon electronics. In particular, we discuss improvements in epitaxial graphene growth, interface control and the understanding of multilayer epitaxial graphene's (MEG's) electronic properties. Although graphene grown on both polar faces of SiC will be discussed, our discussions will focus on graphene grown on the (0\,0\,0\,\bar{1}) C-face of SiC. The unique properties of C-face MEG have become apparent. These films behave electronically like a stack of nearly independent graphene sheets rather than a thin Bernal stacked graphite sample. The origins of multilayer graphene's electronic behaviour are its unique highly ordered stacking of non-Bernal rotated graphene planes. While these rotations do not significantly affect the inter-layer interactions, they do break the stacking symmetry of graphite. It is this broken symmetry that leads to each sheet behaving like isolated graphene planes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a study of adsorbate screening of surface charge in microscopic ferroelectric domains in a sol-gel grown PbZr 0.2 Ti 0.8 O 3 thin film. Low-energy and photoemission electron microscopies were employed to characterize the temperature dependence of surface charge and polarization of ferroelectric domains written by atomic force microscopy. We study the role of charged adsorbates in screening of polarization-bound charges. We demonstrate that full-field electron microscopy is suitable for the determination of ferroelectric system properties such as the Curie temperature.

The understanding of domain structures, specifically domain walls, currently attracts a significant attention in the field of (multi)-ferroic materials. In this article, we analyze contrast formation in full field electron microscopy applied to domains and domain walls in the uniaxial ferroelectric lithium niobate, which presents a large 3.8 eV band gap and for which conductive domain walls have been reported. We show that the transition from Mirror Electron Microscopy (MEM - electrons reflected) to Low Energy Electron Microscopy (LEEM - electrons backscattered) gives rise to a robust contrast between domains with upwards (Pup) and downwards (Pdown) polarization, and provides a measure of the difference in surface potential between the domains. We demonstrate that out-of-focus conditions of imaging produce contrast inversion, due to image distortion induced by charged surfaces, and also carry information on the polarization direction in the domains. Finally, we show that the intensity profile at domain walls provides experimental evidence for a local stray, lateral electric field.