Mauritania's Colonels

Cluster Superlattice Membranes

“…The in-plane nearest neighbor distance measured from the line profile of Figure 3 is 2.65 ± 0.05 Å, which is slightly smaller than the Ir bulk value of 2.715 Å. 20,26 The reduced in-plane cluster nearest neighbor distance compares well with the results of surface X-ray diffraction experiments for similar-sized nonembedded Ir clusters on Gr/Ir(111), where a compressive in-plane strain of 2.5% was measured. 20 Because the metal clusters grow epitaxially on Gr prior to embedding and lift-off, their (111) lattice plane is parallel to the surface and their dense packed atomic rows are parallel to the dense packed rows of the cluster superlattice.…”

“…This mechanism induces pinning of the clusters at the hcp areas, leading to cluster superlattice with the moiréperiodicity of 2.53 nm. 20,23,26,27 The clusters were found to have epitaxial growth with their dense-packed planes and their dense-packed directions parallel to those of Gr. 20,26 Figure 1b shows an STM image of a such a cluster superlattice formed by deposition of 0.4 ML of Ir on the Gr moire.…”

“…20,23,26,27 The clusters were found to have epitaxial growth with their dense-packed planes and their dense-packed directions parallel to those of Gr. 20,26 Figure 1b shows an STM image of a such a cluster superlattice formed by deposition of 0.4 ML of Ir on the Gr moire. The clusters' sizes display a Poisson distribution with an average size s av = 35 atoms defined by the deposited amount; see the inset of Figure 1b for a structural model.…”

“…20 Because the metal clusters grow epitaxially on Gr prior to embedding and lift-off, their (111) lattice plane is parallel to the surface and their dense packed atomic rows are parallel to the dense packed rows of the cluster superlattice. 26 To uncover whether changes in the cluster orientation and structure take place during embedding and lift-off, we looked at each cluster of Figure 3e individually, marked the directions of their fringes, and compared them with the superlattice directions as shown in Figure S4. About 54% of the clusters' fringes are aligned along the high symmetry lines of the superlattice (marked with red in the inset of Figure 3e) and thus with those of Gr, whereas 24% are now misoriented.…”

Carbon Embedding of Pt Cluster Superlattices Templated by Hexagonal Boron Nitride on Ir(111)

“…Pt cluster superlattices were templated previously on Gr/ Ir(111), 7,8 Gr/Ru(0001), 9 alumina films on Ni 3 Al(111), 10 monolayer hexagonal boron nitride on Rh(111), 11,12 and h-BN on Ir(111). 13 Here we investigate the carbon embedding for Pt/h-BN/Ir(111) because this system has excellent superlattice order and high sintering resistance (no effect up to 650 K) 13 which make it an attractive candidate for CSLM formation.…”