Due to the predominantly surface character of graphene, it is highly suitable for functionalization with external atoms and/or molecules leading to a plethora of new and interesting phenomena. Here we show ferromagnetic properties of hydrogenfunctionalized epitaxial graphene on SiC. Ferromagnetism in such a material is not directly evident as it is inherently composed of only non-magnetic constituents. Our results nevertheless show strong ferromagnetism, which cannot be explained by simple magnetic impurities. The ferromagnetism is unique to hydrogenated epitaxial graphene on SiC, where interactions with the interfacial buffer layer play a crucial role. We argue that the origin of the observed ferromagnetism is governed by electron correlation effects of the narrow Si-dangling-bond (Si-DB) states in the buffer layer exchangecoupled to localized states in the hydrogenated graphene layer. This forms a quasithree-dimensional ferromagnet with a Curie temperature higher than 300 K.Owing to its capability of ballistic transport over micrometer distances 1 , as well as its very long spin relaxation time and spin relaxation length 2, 3 , graphene represents a close-to-ideal material for spintronic applications 4 . In this context, considerable effort has recently been directed to rendering graphene ferromagnetic via chemical modification. Thus far, ferromagnetic order in graphene has been attained through covalent functionalization, involving the linkage of radical species like the spin-bearing carbon atom of an organic molecule or hydrogen atoms to the graphene layer [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] . Along these lines, functionalization of epitaxial graphene by aryl radicals has been reported to yield disordered magnetism, comprising a mixture of ferromagnetic, superparamagnetic and antiferromagnetic regions 18 .With the aid of combined atomic and magnetic force microscopy, it could be proven that these randomly dispersed regions are constituted by the attached moieties. This lack of a periodic functionalization pattern of the graphene sheet prevents the achievement of long range ferromagnetic order, thus limiting the use of such samples in spintronic devices.Furthermore, room temperature ferromagnetism has been detected in partially hydrogenated epitaxial graphene grown on silicon carbide (SiC), and attributed to hydrogen monomers bonded to the graphene sheet 12 . Despite these accomplishments, however, both the mechanism underlying the ferromagnetic ordering, and the role played by the SiC substrate used for the epitaxial graphene growth, has not yet been clarified. Here, we experimentally demonstrate that spin ordering within hydrogenated epitaxial graphene critically depends on the presence of the underlying buffer layer. In addition, it is shown that the created magnetic 3 areas are distributed over the entire graphene sheet, thus enabling to effectively tune the overall magnetization through the density of attached hydrogen atoms.To explore the ferromagnetism in epitaxial graphene, we use samples ...

Metasurfaces offer unparalleled functionalities for controlling the propagation and properties of electromagnetic waves. But to transfer these functions to technological applications, it is critical to render them tunable and to enable fast control by external stimuli. In most cases, this has been realized by utilizing tunable materials combined with a top-down nanostructuring process, which is often complicated and time intensive. Here we present a novel strategy for fabricating a tunable metasurface comprising epitaxially grown nanobeams of a phase transition material, vanadium dioxide. Without the need for extensive nanolithographic fabrication, we prepared a large-area (>1 cm 2 ), deep-subwavelength (thickness of ∼λ/40) nanostructured thin film that can control light transmission with large modulation depth, exceeding 9 dB across all telecommunication wavelength bands. Furthermore, the transmission in the "on" state remains higher than 80% from near-to mid-infrared region. This renders our metasurface useful also as a phase-shifting element, which we demonstrate by carrying out cross-polarized transmission measurements. To provide insights about the relationship between metasurface morphology and its resulting optical properties, we perform full-field three-dimensional numerical simulations as a function of width, height, and edge-to-edge separation of the epitaxial VO 2 nanobeams.

Colloidal gold nanoparticles represent technological building blocks which are easy to fabricate while keeping full control of their shape and dimensions. Here, we report on a simple two-step maskless process to assemble gold nanoparticles from a water colloidal solution at specific sites of a silicon surface. First, the silicon substrate covered by native oxide is exposed to a charged particle beam (ions or electrons) and then immersed in a HF-modified solution of colloidal nanoparticles. The irradiation of the native oxide layer by a low-fluence charged particle beam causes changes in the type of surface-terminating groups, while the large fluences induce even more profound modification of surface composition. Hence, by a proper selection of the initial substrate termination, solution pH, and beam fluence, either positive or negative deposition of the colloidal nanoparticles can be achieved.

The objective of this work is to study the delamination of bismuth ferrite prepared by atomic layer deposition on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) substrate. The samples’ structures and compositions are provided by XPS, secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and Raman spectroscopy. The resulting films demonstrate buckling and delamination from the substrates. The composition inside the resulting bubbles is in a gaseous state. It contains the reaction products captured on the surface during the deposition of the film. The topography of Bi-Fe-O thin films was studied in vacuum and under atmospheric conditions using simultaneous SEM and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Besides complementary advanced imaging, a correlative SEM-AFM analysis provides the possibility of testing the mechanical properties by using a variation of pressure. In this work, the possibility of studying the surface tension of the thin films using a joint SEM-AFM analysis is shown.