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We investigate the equilibrium properties of arrays of coherent strained islands in heteroepitaxial thin films of bidimensional materials. The model we use takes into account only three essential ingredients : surface energies, elastic…
A model of submonolayer thin film growth is studied, where the attachment of atoms to island edges is hindered by an energy barrier. A novel behavior of the density of islands, N_s, is predicted as a function of flux F and temperature T.…
The search for high-quality transition metal dichalcogenides mono- and multi-layers grown on large areas is still a very active field of investigation nowadays. Here, we use molecular beam epitaxy to grow 15$\times$15 mm large WSe$_2$ on…
Adhesive peeling of a thin elastic film from a substrate is a classic problem in mechanics. However, many of the investigations on this topic to date have focused on peeling from substrates with flat surfaces. In this paper, we study the…
We demonstrate how first-principles calculations using density-functional theory (DFT) can be applied to gain insight into the molecular processes that rule the physics of materials processing. Specifically, we study the molecular beam…
A plethora of two-dimensional (2D) materials entered the physics and engineering scene in the last two decades. Their robust, membrane-like sheet permit -- mostly require -- deposition, giving rise to solid-solid dry interfaces whose bodily…
Graphite surfaces interact weakly with molecules compared to other conducting surfaces bringing the molecule-molecule interaction to the foreground. C$_{60}$ on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite is a model system for studying the molecular…
Transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) monolayers and heterostructures have emerged as a compelling class of materials with transformative new science that may be harnessed for novel device technologies. These materials are commonly…
The development of epitaxy techniques for localized growth of crystalline silicon nanofilms and nanostructures has been crucial to recent advances in electronics and photonics. A precise definition of the crystal growth location, however,…
Vertically stacking two dimensional (2D) materials can enable the design of novel electronic and optoelectronic devices and realize complex functionality. However, the fabrication of such artificial heterostructures in wafer scale with an…
Van der Waals heterostructures provide a versatile tool to not only protect or control, but also enhance the properties of a 2D material. We use ab initio calculations and semi-analytical models to find strategies which boost the mobility…
We use low-energy electron microscopy to investigate how graphene grows on Cu(111). Graphene islands first nucleate at substrate defects such as step bunches and impurities. A considerable fraction of these islands can be rotationally…
van der Waals (vdW) epitaxy is conventionally regarded as a rotation-free and strain-free growth mode driven by weak, isotropic interactions, yet many interfaces paradoxically exhibit strictly locked orientations that defy standard…
Graphene, a hexagonal sheet of $sp^2$-bonded carbon atoms, has extraordinary properties which hold immense promise for future nanoelectronic applications. Unfortunately, the popular preparation methods of micromechanical cleavage and…
In recent years, two-dimensional van der Waals materials have emerged as an important platform for the observation of long-range ferromagnetic order in atomically thin layers. Although heterostructures of such materials can be conceived to…
We demonstrate selective area epitaxy of GaAs films using patterned graphene masks on a Ge (001) substrate. The GaAs selectively grows on exposed regions of the Ge substrate, for graphene spacings as large as 10 microns. The selectivity is…
We report on the low-temperature fabrication (300$\deg$C) of ultrathin 2D amorphous carbon layers on III-V semiconductors by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition as a universal template for remote epitaxy. We present growth and…
Van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures, which combine bi-dimensional materials of different properties, enable a range of quantum phenomena. Here, we present a comparative study between the electronic properties of mono- and bi-layer of…
We investigate the formation and the coarsening dynamics of islands in a strained epitaxial semi-conductor film. These islands are commonly observed in thin films undergoing a morphological instability due to the presence of the elasto…
We examine the competition between adhesive and bending energies for few-layered graphene samples placed on rigid, microscale-corrugated substrates. Using atomic force microscopy, we show that the graphene undergoes a sharp "snap-through"…