Addressing the multitude of electronic phenomena theoretically predicted for confined graphene structures requires appropriate in situ fabrication procedures yielding graphene nanoflakes (GNFs) with well-defined geometries and accessible electronic properties. Here, we present a simple strategy to fabricate quasi-free-standing GNFs of variable sizes, performing temperature programmed growth of graphene flakes on the Ir(111) surface and subsequent intercalation of gold. Using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), we show that epitaxial GNFs on a perfectly ordered Au(111) surface are formed while maintaining an unreconstructed, singly hydrogen-terminated edge structure, as confirmed by the accompanying density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Using tip-induced lateral displacement of GNFs, we demonstrate that GNFs on Au(111) are to a large extent decoupled from the Au(111) substrate. The direct accessibility of the electronic states of a single GNF is demonstrated upon analysis of the quasiparticle interference patterns obtained by low-temperature STM. These findings open up an interesting playground for diverse investigations of graphene nanostructures with possible implications for device fabrication.

Skutterudites are promising materials for future thermoelectric applications. Whereas the skutterudite CoSb 3 is intensively studied, nearly no investigations for FeSb 3 are performed due to its metastable character and the comparably low decomposition temperature.In this work, single phase FeSb 3 thin films were prepared by co-deposition of Fe and Sb using molecular beam epitaxy at room temperature followed by post-annealing. The transport properties of a Fe-Sb composition series were determined and reveal high power factors S 2 σ up to 14 µW/K 2 cm. Furthermore, the structural parameters, the electronic structure and the transport parameters were calculated by density functional theory giving excellent agreement to the experimental data.

Inspired by recent success of synthesizing cluster assembled compounds we address the question to what extent the three new materials [CoSe(PEt)][C], [CrTe(PEt)][C], and [NiTe(PEt)]C, upon forming bulk compounds, imitate atomic analogues. Although experimental results suggest the latter, a theoretical approach is the method of choice for offering a conclusive answer and for studying the actual superatomic character. The concept of superatoms for describing atom-imitating clusters is very intriguing since it allows chemists to apply their chemical intuition - a useful tool for predicting new materials - when it comes to inter-cluster reactions. Thus, we systematically study the lattice structure, the intercluster binding, and the electronic structure by density functional theory and assess them in terms of their superatomic features. We show that collective properties arise upon bulk formation, which promotes arguments for the formation of solids in which the constituent clusters have a superatomic character that determines some form of chemical bonding. Additionally, we find evidence for the formation of superatomic states. Unfortunately, however, due to the mixing of electronic states of transition metals and chalcogen atoms, no typical electronic shell closing in the cluster cores can be identified.

We have computed the lattice structure, bulk modulus, electronic structure, and cohesive energies for the CoSb 3 skutterudite by performing plane wave and atomic basis set DFT, as well as HF atomic basis set calculations. We find that plane wave and atomic basis set DFT calculations compare almost perfectly well. Band gaps vary significantly, depending on the applied functional and subtle changes of the lattice structure of CoSb 3 . Where LDA strongly overestimates the binding, cohesive energies are reasonably well described by GGA and hybrid DFT functionals within 2 eV in comparison to experiment. HF results are unreasonably far off compared to DFT and experimental values for all calculated properties, which indicates that correlation effects play an important role in the characterization of skutterudites.