Evidencing the need for high spatial resolution in angle-resolved photoemission experiments

Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) is the most direct tool to measure the electronic structure of materials. In particular, fine features of the spectra can be analyzed for evaluating the electron self-energy. Owing to a setup allowing ARPES investigation with submicron resolution and state-of-the-art energy and momentum resolution, we show here first that ARPES spectra of pristine and virtually undoped monolayer graphene acquired on a small spot do not display manifestations of self-energy. We next demonstrate that, although the region of the sample investigated is a unique graphene domain, it displays faint spatial inhomogeneity, both in its crystallographic orientation and its thickness, which is undetectable with conventional ARPES but renders the spectra improper for self-energy extraction. These results indicate that care should be taken when analyzing ARPES spectra obtained with poor spatial resolution.