Edge states of moiré structures in graphite

Eric Suárez Morell, P. Vargas, P. Häberle, S. H. Hevia

Published 2014-09-25Version 1

We address the origin of bead-like edge states observed by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) in moir\'e patterns of graphite. Low-bias scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurements indicate these edge states are centered around AB stacking sites, contrarily to the common assumption of them being at AA sites. This shift of the beads intensity with respect to the bulk moir\'e pattern has been corroborated by a tight-binding calculation of the edge states in bilayer nanoribbons. Our results are valid not only for graphite but also for few-layer graphene, where these states have also been recently observed.