Reflection electron energy loss spectrum of single layer graphene measured on a graphite substrate

Reflection electron energy loss spectra (REELS) have been measured on a highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) sample. Two spectra were measured for different energies, 1600 eV, being more sensitive to the bulk and 500 eV being more sensitive to the surface. The energy loss distributions for a single surface and bulk excitation were extracted from the two spectra using a simple decomposition procedure. These single scattering loss distributions correspond to electron trajectories with significantly different penetration depths and agree with energy loss spectra measured on free standing single layer graphene and multilayer graphene (i.e. graphite). This result implies that for a layered electron gas (LEG) material, the number of layers which responds in a correlated fashion to an external perturbation is determined by the depth range penetrated by the external perturbation, and not by the number of layers actually present in the specimen. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.