There are numerous studies on the growth of planar films on sp 2 -bonded two-dimensional (2D) layered materials. However, it has been challenging to grow single-crystalline films on 2D materials due to the extremely low surface energy. Recently, buffer-assisted growth of crystalline films on 2D layered materials has been introduced, but the crystalline quality is not comparable with the films grown on sp 3 -bonded three-dimensional materials. Here we demonstrate direct van der Waals epitaxy of high-quality single-crystalline GaN films on epitaxial graphene with low defectivity and surface roughness comparable with that grown on conventional SiC or sapphire substrates. The GaN film is released and transferred onto arbitrary substrates. The post-released graphene/SiC substrate is reused for multiple growth and transfer cycles of GaN films. We demonstrate fully functional blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) by growing LED stacks on reused graphene/SiC substrates followed by transfer onto plastic tapes.
Organic light-emitting diodes are emerging as leading technologies for both high quality display and lighting. However, the transparent conductive electrode used in the current organic light-emitting diode technologies increases the overall cost and has limited bendability for future flexible applications. Here we use single-layer graphene as an alternative flexible transparent conductor, yielding white organic light-emitting diodes with brightness and efficiency sufficient for general lighting. The performance improvement is attributed to the device structure, which allows direct hole injection from the single-layer graphene anode into the light-emitting layers, reducing carrier trapping induced efficiency roll-off. By employing a light out-coupling structure, phosphorescent green organic light-emitting diodes exhibit external quantum efficiency 460%, while phosphorescent white organic light-emitting diodes exhibit external quantum efficiency 445% at 10,000 cd m À 2 with colour rendering index of 85. The power efficiency of white organic light-emitting diodes reaches 80 lm W À 1 at 3,000 cd m À 2 , comparable to the most efficient lighting technologies.
The performance of optimized graphene devices is ultimately determined by the quality of the graphene itself. Graphene grown on copper foils is often wrinkled, and the orientation of the graphene cannot be controlled. Graphene grown on SiC(0001) via the decomposition of the surface has a single orientation, but its thickness cannot be easily limited to one layer. We describe a method in which a graphene film of one or two monolayers grown on SiC is exfoliated via the stress induced with a Ni film and transferred to another substrate. The excess graphene is selectively removed with a second exfoliation process with a Au film, resulting in a monolayer graphene film that is continuous and single-oriented.
Epitaxial lift-off process enables the separation of III-V device layers from gallium arsenide substrates and has been extensively explored to avoid the high cost of III-V devices by reusing the substrates. Conventional epitaxial lift-off processes require several post-processing steps to restore the substrate to an epi-ready condition. Here we present an epitaxial liftoff scheme that minimizes the amount of post-etching residues and keeps the surface smooth, leading to direct reuse of the gallium arsenide substrate. The successful direct substrate reuse is confirmed by the performance comparison of solar cells grown on the original and the reused substrates. Following the features of our epitaxial lift-off process, a high-throughput technique called surface tension-assisted epitaxial lift-off was developed. In addition to showing full wafer gallium arsenide thin film transfer onto both rigid and flexible substrates, we also demonstrate devices, including light-emitting diode and metal-oxidesemiconductor capacitor, first built on thin active layers and then transferred to secondary substrates.
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