Structural investigations of hydrogenated epitaxial graphene grown on 4H-SiC (0001)

Structural investigations of hydrogenated epitaxial graphene grown on SiC(0001) are presented. It is shown that hydrogen plays a dual role. In addition to contributing to the well-known removal of the buffer layer, it goes between the graphene planes, resulting in an increase of the interlayer spacing to 3.6 Å–3.8 Å. It is explained by the intercalation of molecular hydrogen between carbon planes, which is followed by H2 dissociation, resulting in negatively charged hydrogen atoms trapped between the graphene layers, with some addition of covalent bonding to carbon atoms. Negatively charged hydrogen may be responsible for p-doping observed in hydrogenated multilayer graphene.