TRACKING THE INTERFACE STATES DYNAMICS AT CARBON-BASED NANOSTRUCTURES ON METAL BY NON-LINEAR PHOTOEMISSION SPECTROSCOPY

After single-layer graphene isolation in 2004, the scientific community has concentrated its efforts in the investigation of single-atom thin materials, due to their unique electronic properties, not shown by their bulk counterpart. Among this promising class of materials, two-dimensional carbon-based nanostructures have encountered a growing interest in nanotechnology, due to the huge variety of potential applications in which they are involved, from optoelectronics and photonics to energy generation, storage and solar cells. For the industrial realization of these devices a comprehensive understanding of the interaction between 2D carbon nanostructures and metallic substrates is necessary. An excellent tool to accomplish this aim is represented by the study of the electronic properties and dynamics of the states localized at the carbon nanostructures/metal interfacial region, being extremely sensitive to any modification at the surface. The investigation of these unoccupied electronic states has been accomplished applying femtosecond, high intensity laser pulses in the near-UV ranges to photoemission techniques.