Nitrogen-induced structures in epitaxial graphene on 6H-SiC(0001)*

Nitrogen-induced structures on epitaxial graphene grown on 6H- SiC(0001) are studied by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and first-principles calculations. Several defect structures produced by nitrogen incorporation are observed by STM. Calculations of the energetics of nitrogen substitution at various sites neighboring a carbon vacancy indicate that nitrogen prefers to be at the site nearest to the vacancy, consistent with the STM observations.