A composition of matter comprising a film on a graphitic substrate, said film having been grown epitaxially on said substrate, wherein said film comprises at least one group III-V compound or at least one group II-VI compound.

A film structure comprises a substrate and a buffer film formed on the substrate. The substrate is a 36° to 48° rotated Y-cut Si substrate, or the substrate is a SOI substrate including a base substance made of the 36° to 48° rotated Y-cut Si substrate, an insulating layer on the base substance, and a SOI layer made of a Si film on the insulating layer, and a mirror index of a crystal plane of an upper surface of the SOI layer is equal to a mirror index of a crystal plane of an upper surface of the base substance. The buffer film includes ZrO.sub.2 epitaxially grown on the substrate.

A film structure comprises a substrate and a buffer film formed on the substrate. The substrate is a 36° to 48° rotated Y-cut Si substrate, or the substrate is a SOI substrate including a base substance made of the 36° to 48° rotated Y-cut Si substrate, an insulating layer on the base substance, and a SOI layer made of a Si film on the insulating layer, and a mirror index of a crystal plane of an upper surface of the SOI layer is equal to a mirror index of a crystal plane of an upper surface of the base substance. The buffer film includes ZrO.sub.2 epitaxially grown on the substrate.

Methods for growing microstructured and nanostructured graphene by growing the microstructured and nanostructured graphene from the bottom-up directly in the desired pattern are provided. The graphene structures can be grown via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on substrates that are partially covered by a patterned graphene growth barrier which guides the growth of the graphene.

Methods for growing microstructured and nanostructured graphene by growing the microstructured and nanostructured graphene from the bottom-up directly in the desired pattern are provided. The graphene structures can be grown via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on substrates that are partially covered by a patterned graphene growth barrier which guides the growth of the graphene.

Provided are a method for preparing a vertical branched graphene comprising treating a pristine vertical graphene with an inert plasma in the absence of an introduced carbon source to develop a vertical branched graphene. The method may also include pre-treating a substrate surface with an inert plasma; depositing a pristine vertical graphene onto the substrate surface by contacting the substrate surface with a deposition plasma comprising a carbon source gas for a deposition period. Also provided are a vertical branched graphene attached to a substrate surface, the vertical branched graphene having a trunk portion extending from the substrate surface, said trunk possessing an increased degree of branching as the distance from the substrate surface increases; and a freestanding branched graphene with a proximal end and a distal end, the proximal end comprising a trunk portion, the trunk portion possessing and increased degree of branching as the distance from the proximal end increases and the distance to the distal end decreases.

The fabrication of asymmetric monometallic nanocrystals with novel properties for plasmonics, nanophotonics and nanoelectronics. Asymmetric monometallic plasmonic nanocrystals are of both fundamental synthetic challenge and practical significance. In an example, a thiol-ligand mediated growth strategy that enables the synthesis of unprecedented Au Nanorod-Au Nanoparticle (AuNR-AuNP) dimers from pre-synthesized AuNR seeds. Using high-resolution electron microscopy and tomography, crystal structure and three-dimensional morphology of the dimer, as well as the growth pathway of the AuNP on the AuNR seed, was investigated for this example. The dimer exhibits an extraordinary broadband optical extinction spectrum spanning the UV, visible, and near infrared regions (300-1300 nm). This unexpected property makes the AuNR-AuNP dimer example useful for many nanophotonic applications. In two experiments, the dimer example was tested as a surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate and a solar light harvester for photothermal conversion, in comparison with the mixture of AuNR and AuNP. In the SERS experiment, the dimer example showed an enhancement factor about 10 times higher than that of the mixture, when the excitation wavelength (660 nm) was off the two surface plasmon resonance (SPR) bands of the mixture. In the photothermal conversion experiment under simulated sunlight illumination, the dimer example exhibited an energy conversion efficiency about 1.4 times as high as that of the mixture.

Disclosed are an apparatus for layer control-based synthesis and a method of using the same.

Disclosed is a method of fabricating a single crystal colloidal monolayer on a substrate. The method includes preparing a pair of adhesive substrates, arranging powder particles between the substrates, and uniaxially rubbing one of the substrates in any one direction to allow the particles to be close-packed between the substrates, thereby forming a single crystal monolayer.

Disclosed is a method of fabricating a single crystal colloidal monolayer on a substrate. The method includes preparing a pair of adhesive substrates, arranging powder particles between the substrates, and uniaxially rubbing one of the substrates in any one direction to allow the particles to be close-packed between the substrates, thereby forming a single crystal monolayer.