Trapping Image State Electrons on Graphene Layers and Islands

The understanding of graphene-metal interfaces is of utmost importance in graphene transport phenomena. To probe this interface we use time- and angle-resolved two-photon photoemission to map the bound, unoccupied electronic structure of the weakly coupled graphene/Ir(111) system. The energy, dispersion, and lifetime of the lowest three image-potential states are measured. In addition, the weak interaction between Ir and the smooth, epitaxial graphene permits observation of resonant transitions from an unquenched Shockley-type surface state of the Ir substrate to graphene/Ir image-potential states. The image-potential-state lifetimes are comparable to those of mid-gap clean metal surfaces. Evidence of localization of the excited image-state electrons on single-atom-layer graphene islands is provided by coverage-dependent measurements.