Fabrication and Characterization of folded Graphene on Graphite

Graphene is one of the most studied carbon compounds due to its electronic properties. Applying an electric pulse between a Graphite surface and STM tip the upper layer of a Graphite surface could be folded due to mechanical and electrostatic forces forming voids, bend, move, and decouple or transfer part of the tip to the surface. Ab-initio electrostatic calculations and MD thermal simulations support our experimental method. Due to the different new discovered and studies physical-effects in Graphene edges, which can significantly influence the overall electronic and magnetic properties of Graphene nanostructures, this results may be exploited as an method to obtain different structures. Here we study Graphene flakes obtained with this Method. Folded Graphene's structure and electronic properties are studied to determine its degree of coupling to the graphite substrate. Cross-sectional analysis of the fold shown reveals that it consists of a single sheet of graphite folded. Graphene edges and folded line reveals new electronic and magnetics properties. Among others the possibility of a multi folded Graphene sheet system gains importance due to the opportunity of getting a Semi-Carbon-Nanotube-Graphene device.