Nuclear fuel structures and methods for fabricating are disclosed herein. The nuclear fuel structure includes a plurality of fibers arranged in the structure and a multilayer fuel region within at least one fiber of the plurality of fibers. The multilayer fuel region includes an inner layer region made of a nuclear fuel material, and an outer layer region encasing the nuclear fuel material. A plurality of discrete multilayer fuel regions may be formed over a core region along the at least one fiber, the plurality of discrete multilayer fuel regions having a respective inner layer region of nuclear fuel material and a respective outer layer region encasing the nuclear fuel material. The plurality of fibers may be wrapped around an inner rod or tube structure or inside an outer tube structure of the nuclear fuel structure, providing both structural support and the nuclear fuel material of the nuclear fuel structure.

A system for forming surface modified substrates includes a laser system, and a laser processing chamber. A laser scanner automatically controls a position of the laser beam or an x-y translating stage upon which the laser processing chamber is mounted thereon for scanning the laser beam relative to a substrate of material (M) having a bulk portion and an outer surface integrated with the bulk portion, and a coating including metal organic molecules including at least one metal X or particles of metal X on the outer surface. At laser-heated spots atoms of X from the metal coating diffuse into the outer surface to form a modified surface layer including both M and X. The modified surface layer has a thickness of 1 nm, and a 25° C. electrical conductivity ≥2.5% above or ≤2.5% below a 25° C. electrical conductivity in the bulk portion.

Methods of fabricating fiber structures with embedded sensors are provided. The method includes obtaining a scaffold fiber and forming, by 1½-D printing using laser induced chemical vapor deposition, circuitry on the scaffold fiber to provide a fiber structure with embedded sensor. The forming includes printing a solid state oscillator about the scaffold fiber, and printing a sensing device about the scaffold fiber electrically coupled to the solid state oscillator to effect, at least in part, oscillations of the solid state oscillator. The forming further includes printing an antenna about the scaffold fiber electrically connected to the solid state oscillator to facilitate in operation wireless transmitting of a signal from the fiber structure with embedded sensor.

A system and method for performing is laser induced forward transfer (LIFT) of 2D materials is disclosed. The method includes generating a receiver substrate, generating a donor substrate, wherein the donor substrate comprises a back surface and a front surface, applying a coating to the front surface, wherein the coating includes donor material, aligning the front surface of the donor substrate to be parallel to and facing the receiver substrate, wherein the donor material is disposed adjacent to the target layer, and irradiating the coating through the back surface of the donor substrate with one or more laser pulses produced by a laser to transfer a portion of the donor material to the target layer. The donor material may include Bi.sub.2S.sub.3-xS.sub.x, MoS.sub.2, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) or graphene. The method may be used to create touch sensors and other electronic components.

Various embodiments may relate to an electrode. The electrode may include an electrode core including an electrode active material. The electrode may also include one or more monolayer amorphous films. Each of the one or more monolayer amorphous films may be a continuous layer surrounding the electrode core.

Disclosed herein are laser-assisted metal-organic chemical vapor deposition devices and methods of use thereof.

A photodetector based on PtSe.sub.2 and a silicon nanopillar array includes a PMMA light-transmitting protective layer, a graphene transparent top electrode, a silicon nanopillar array structure coated with few-layer PtSe.sub.2, and metal electrodes of the graphene transparent top electrode and the silicon nanopillar array structure. A method for preparing the photodetector includes steps of: preparing graphene with a CVD method; preparing a silicon nanopillar array structure through dry etching; coating few-layer PtSe.sub.2 on surfaces of the silicon nano-pillar array structure through laser interference enhanced induction CVD; preparing graphene transparent top electrode; and magnetron-sputtering metal electrodes. The photodetector prepared by the present invention has a detection range from visible light to near-infrared wavebands. The silicon nanopillar array structure enhances light absorption of the detector, so that the detector has high sensitivity, simple structure and strong practicability.

The invention includes apparatus and methods for instantiating and quantum printing materials, such as elemental metals, in a nanoporous carbon powder.

A seed layer for inducing nucleation to form a layer of material is described. In an embodiment, the seed layer comprising a layer of two-dimensional monolayer amorphous material having a disordered atomic structure adapted to create localised electronic states to form electric potential wells for bonding adatoms to a surface of the seed layer via van der Waals interaction to form the layer of material, wherein each of the electric potential wells has a potential energy larger in magnitude than surrounding thermal energy to capture adatoms on the surface of the seed layer. Embodiments in relation to a method for forming the seed layer, a heterostructure comprising the seed layer, a method for forming the heterostructure comprising the seed layer, a device comprising the heterostructure and a method of enhancing vdW interaction between adatoms and a surface of the seed layer are also described.

A deposition apparatus and a method are provided. A method includes placing a substrate over a platform in a chamber of a deposition system. A precursor material is introduced into the chamber. A first gas curtain is generated in front of a first electromagnetic (EM) radiation source coupled to the chamber. A plasma is generated from the precursor material in the chamber, wherein the plasma comprises dissociated components of the precursor material. The plasma is subjected to a first EM radiation from the first EM radiation source. The first EM radiation further dissociates the precursor material. A layer is deposited over the substrate. The layer includes a reaction product of the dissociated components of the precursor material.