Monolayer charge-neutral graphene on platinum with extremely weak electron-phonon coupling

Abstract: Epitaxial growth of graphene on transition metal substrates is an important route for obtaining large scale graphene. However, the interaction between graphene and the substrate often leads to multiple orientations, distorted graphene band structure, large doping and strong electron-phonon coupling. Here we report the growth of monolayer graphene with high crystalline quality on Pt(111) substrate by using a very low concentration of an internal carbon source with high annealing temperature. The controlled growth leads to electronically decoupled graphene: it is nearly charge neutral and has extremely weak electron-phonon coupling (coupling strength $\lambda$ $\approx$ 0.056) as revealed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopic measurements. The thermodynamics and kinetics of the carbon diffusion process is investigated by DFT calculation. Such graphene with negligible graphene-substrate interaction provides an important platform for fundamental research as well as device applications when combined with a nondestructive sample transfer technique.