Tianchao Niu

TL;DR: In situ low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy is used to reveal the graphene growth intermediates at different stages via thermal decomposition of methane on Cu(111) and it is clearly demonstrated that various carbon clusters, including carbon dimers, carbon rectangles, and 'zigzag' and 'armchair'-like carbon chains are the actual growth intermediate prior to the graphene formation.

TL;DR: A critical PECVD (c-PECVD) growth method, in which a H2 plasma is introduced during graphene growth, which observed efficient catalyst-free crystal growth of graphene directly on crystalline sapphire, highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG), and the amorphous surface of Si substrates.

TL;DR: Graphene, hexagonal boron nitride, molybdenum disulphide, and layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) represent a class of two-dimensional (2D) atomic crystals with unique properties due to reduced dimensionality.

TL;DR: A critical factor for metal-free PECVD growth of NG is reported, which allows high quality NG crystals to be grown directly on dielectrics like SiO2/Si, Al2O3, h-BN, mica at 435 °C without a catalyst.

TL;DR: It is reported that the necessary coalignment of the nucleating graphene islands on Ge(110) surface is caused by the presence of step-pattern, and it is shown that on the preannealed Ge (110) textureless surface the graphene islands appear nonpreferentially orientated, while on the Ge( 110) surfaces with natural step pattern, all graphene islands emerge coaligned.