We report an epitaxial growth of graphene, including homo- and hetero-epitaxy on graphite and SiC substrates, at a temperature as low as ~540 ℃. This vapour-phase epitaxial growth, carried out in a remote plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (RPECVD) system using methane as the carbon source, can yield large-area high-quality graphene with the desired number of layers over the entire substrate surfaces following an AB-stacking layer-by-layer growth model. We also developed a facile transfer method to transfer a typical continuous one layer epitaxial graphene with second layer graphene islands on top of the first layer with the coverage of the second layer graphene islands being 20% (1.2 layer epitaxial graphene) from a SiC substrate onto SiO₂ and measured the resistivity, carrier density and mobility. Our work provides a new strategy toward the growth of graphene and broadens its prospects of application in future electronics.

Electromechanical switch devices employing suspended graphene as movable elements have been developed. Their on and off states can be controlled by modulating the electrostatic force applied to the graphene. The devices exhibit on–off ratios of up to 10⁴ and lifetimes of over 500 cycles. The prototype device demonstrates the feasibility of using multilayer graphene in electromechanical systems. Measurements of the mechanical properties of the free-standing monolayer graphene gave a value of 0.96 TPa for the Young's modulus and a van der Waals force with silicon oxide of 0.17 nN/nm².

We have developed a new method to grow uniform graphene films directly on various substrates, such as insulators, semiconductors, and even metals, without using any catalyst. The growth was carried out using a remote plasma enhancement chemical vapor deposition (r-PECVD) system at relatively low temperatures, enabling the deposition of graphene films up to 4-inch wafer scale. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) confirmed that the films are made up of nanocrystalline graphene particles of tens of nanometers in lateral size. The growth mechanism for the nanographene is analogous to that for diamond grown by PECVD methods, in spite of sp² carbon atoms being formed in the case of graphene rather than sp³ carbon atoms as in diamond. This growth approach is simple, low-cost, and scalable, and might have potential applications in fields such as thin film resistors, gas sensors, electrode materials, and transparent conductive films.