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Zig-zag edge graphene ribbons grown on 6H-SiC facets are ballistic conductors. It has been assumed that zig-zag graphene ribbons grown on 4H-SiC would also be ballistic. However, in this work we show that SiC polytype matters; ballistic graphene ribbons only grow on 6H SiC. 4H and 4H-passivated ribbons are diffusive conductors. Detailed photoemmision and microscopy studies show that 6H-SiC sidewalls zig-zag ribbons are metallic with a pair of n-doped edge states associated with asymmetric edge terminations, In contrast, 4H-SiC zig-zag ribbons are strongly bonded to the SiC; severely distorting the ribbon's $\pi$-bands. $\text{H}_2$-passivation of the 4H ribbons returns them to a metallic state but show no evidence of edge states., Comment: 6 figure

While numerous methods have been proposed to produce semiconducting graphene, a significant bandgap has never been demonstrated. The reason is that, regardless of the theoretical gap formation mechanism, disorder at the sub-nanometer scale prevents the required chiral symmetry breaking necessary to open a bandgap in graphene. In this work, we show for the first time that a 2D semiconducting graphene film can be made by epitaxial growth. Using improved growth methods, we show by direct band measurements that a bandgap greater than 0.5 eV can be produced in the first graphene layer grown on the SiC(0001) surface. This work demonstrates that order, a property that remains lacking in other graphene systems, is key to producing electronically viable semiconducting graphene.

A blueprint for producing scalable digital graphene electronics has remained elusive. Current methods to produce semiconducting-metallic graphene networks all suffer from either stringent lithographic demands that prevent reproducibility, process-induced disorder in the graphene, or scalability issues. Using angle resolved photoemission, we have discovered a unique one dimensional metallic-semiconducting-metallic junction made entirely from graphene, and produced without chemical functionalization or finite size patterning. The junction is produced by taking advantage of the inherent, atomically ordered, substrate-graphene interaction when it is grown on SiC, in this case when graphene is forced to grow over patterned SiC steps. This scalable bottomup approach allows us to produce a semiconducting graphene strip whose width is precisely defined within a few graphene lattice constants, a level of precision entirely outside modern lithographic limits. The architecture demonstrated in this work is so robust that variations in the average electronic band structure of thousands of these patterned ribbons have little variation over length scales tens of microns long. The semiconducting graphene has a topologically defined few nanometer wide region with an energy gap greater than 0.5 eV in an otherwise continuous metallic graphene sheet. This work demonstrates how the graphene-substrate interaction can be used as a powerful tool to scalably modify graphene's electronic structure and opens a new direction in graphene electronics research., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures

In this work we use LEEM, XPEEM and XPS to study how the excess Si at the graphene-vacuum interface reorders itself at high temperatures. We show that silicon deposited at room temperature onto multilayer graphene films grown on the SiC(000[`1]) rapidly diffuses to the graphene-SiC interface when heated to temperatures above 1020. In a sequence of depositions, we have been able to intercalate ~ 6 ML of Si into the graphene-SiC interface., Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, submitted to PRB