Graphene layers were grown on a C-terminated SiC (000$\overline{1}$) surface in a high-pressure Ar atmosphere. Their growth mechanism was investigated using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM). First at a low temperature, local areas of SiC surface are decomposed, and several layers of graphene nucleus are formed in the resulting craters. Then graphene layers grow in all directions laterally, keeping their number of layers invariant. These results indicate that control of the number of graphene layers require precise control of the first stage of decomposition. After the graphene layers cover the surface completely, SiC decomposition occurs at a higher temperature along the [0001]${}_{\mathit{SiC}}$ direction, and the number of graphene layers increase. The formation of local wrinkles accompanies the increase of the number of layers. In addition we propose that the formation mechanism strongly affects the rotational stacking, which is characteristic of multilayer graphene on the C-face of SiC.

• Received 9 April 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.84.035424