The influence of the number of graphene layers on the atomic resolution images obtained from aberration-corrected high resolution transmission electron microscopy.

Image patterns formed by low voltage aberration-corrected high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) of few layer graphene provide insight into the number of layers present. For odd numbers of graphene layers (three layers or more) and even numbers of graphene layers, distinctly different image patterns are produced. A sheet with step edges of between zero, one, two and three layers of graphene is fabricated using in situ electron beam sputtering at 80 kV and atomic resolution images are obtained. A correlation between the theoretically generated image simulations and the real HRTEM images is found and this enables us to distinguish between monolayer, bilayer, and trilayer graphene using image pattern recognition.