Photoelectron spectroscopy of wet and gaseous samples through electron transparent graphene membranes

Published

September 22, 2014

Author(s)

Jurgen Kraus, Robert Reichelt, Sebastian Gunther, Luca Gregoratti, Tang Lin Teo, Maya Kiskinova, Alexander Yulaev, Ivan Vlassiouk, Andrei Kolmakov

Abstract

Photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) and microscopy are highly demanded for exploring morphologically complex solid-gas and solid-liquid interfaces under realistic conditions but the very small electron mean free path inside the dense media imposes serious experimental challenges. Currently near ambient pressure PES is conducted using sophisticated and expensive electron energy analyzers coupled with differentially pumped electron lenses. An alternative economical approach proposed in this report is using ultrathin graphene membranes (GM) to isolate the ambient sample environment from the PES detection section. We demonstrate that the GM separating windows are both mechanically robust and sufficiently transparent for electrons in a wide energy range to allow PES of liquid and gaseous water. The reported proof-of-principle experiments also open a principal possibility to probe UHV incompatible toxic or reactive samples enclosed inside the hermetic environmental cells.

Citation

Nanoscale

Volume

6

Issue

23

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

electron transparent membrane, graphene, ambient pressure electron spectroscopy

Citation

Kraus, J. , Reichelt, R. , Gunther, S. , Gregoratti, L. , Teo, T. , Kiskinova, M. , Yulaev, A. , Vlassiouk, I. and Kolmakov, A. (2014), Photoelectron spectroscopy of wet and gaseous samples through electron transparent graphene membranes, Nanoscale, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=915312 (Accessed October 11, 2025)