The patterning and transfer of a two-dimensional graphene film without damaging its original structure is an urgent and difficult task. For this purpose, we propose the use of the blister-based laser-induced forward transfer (BB-LIFT), which has proven itself in the transfer of such delicate materials. The ease of implementation of laser techniques reduces the number of intermediate manipulations with a graphene film, increasing its safety. The work demonstrates the promise of BB-LIFT of single-layer graphene from a metal surface to a SiO₂/Si substrate. The effect of the parameters of this method on the structure of transferred graphene islands is investigated. The relevance of reducing the distance between irradiating and receiving substrates for the transfer of free-lying graphene is demonstrated. The reasons for the damage to the integrity of the carbon film observed in the experiments are discussed. The preservation of the original crystal structure of transferred graphene is confirmed by Raman spectroscopy.

Chemical vapor deposition synthesis of graphene on copper foil from methane is the most promising technology for industrial production. However, an important problem of the formation of the additional graphene layers during synthesis arises due to the strong roughness of the initial copper foil. In this paper, various approaches are demonstrated to form a smooth copper surface before graphene synthesis to reduce the amount of few layer graphene islands. Six methods of surface processing of copper foils are studied and the decrease of the roughness from 250 to as low as 80 nm is achieved. The correlation between foil roughness and the formation of the additional layer is demonstrated. Under optimized conditions of surface treatment, the content of the additional graphene layer drops from 9 to 2.1%. The quality and the number of layers of synthesized graphene are analyzed by Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and measurements of charge mobility.

Homoepitaxial diamond growth may proceed with stops and resumptions to produce thick (a few millimeters or even larger) crystals or structures with different layers (e.g., doped and intrinsic diamonds). Here, we studied the effect of interrupting and resuming the growth of single crystal diamond films by microwave plasma CVD in CH₄–H₂ mixtures, with a focus on the change in the surface morphology with the process time. We found a strong impact of the transition period from a pure H₂ plasma to a steady state gas composition on the surface relief evolution. The growth resumption starting from a well-ordered step structure is shown to proceed via the destruction of the steps with further recovery. The velocity of the step propagation, ∼32 μm h⁻¹, was determined from the comparison of the step pattern images obtained after each short (30 min) deposition period. For epitaxy on a polished substrate surface, we observed the growth rate retarding very early in the process stage presumably because of the incomplete macroscopic step formation. Using photoluminescence (PL) mapping in the cross-sections of a multilayer epi-film, the depth profiles of silicon-vacancy (SiV) and nitrogen-vacancy (NV) PL intensities were found to show a modulation correlated with the growth history. These results shed light on the origin of defects on inner interfaces in diamond crystals grown in halt-resumption mode.

A new approach to the fabrication of graphene field emitters on a variety of substrates at room temperature and in an ambient environment is demonstrated. The required shape and orientation of the graphene flakes along the field are created by the blister-based laser-induced forward transfer of CVD high-quality single-layer graphene. The proposed technique allows the formation of emitting crumpled graphene patterns without losing the quality of the initially synthesized graphene, as shown by Raman spectroscopy. The electron field emission properties of crumpled graphene imprints 1 × 1 mm² in size were studied. The transferred graphene flakes demonstrated good adhesion and emission characteristics.

We have studied the effect that the substitution of an organic substance (ethanol) for water adsorbate on a CVD graphene – SiO₂/Si interface has on the laser-induced modification of graphene and graphene structures on the SiO₂ film. Scanning probe microscopy has been used to analyse changes in the electronic properties of graphene structures on a hydrophilic substrate in the presence of ethanol and as a result of a laser-induced spatial redistribution of a water–alcohol adsorbate on the interface. It has been demonstrated experimentally that ethanol substitution for water adsorbate leads to an increase in the surface potential of the graphene, which is equivalent to a reduction in its work function with respect to the original level under normal conditions at a relative humidity of air from 30% to 60%. In the laser irradiation zone, we observe an additional increase in surface potential by 30–50 mV. Thus, ethanol makes it possible to tune the laser-induced electronic properties of graphene on a substrate. In addition, it has been shown that the intercalation of ethanol molecules leads to severe temporal instability of the physical properties of graphene structures produced by local laser irradiation. We have demonstrated the possibility of information 'rewriting' by low-intensity laser pulses in microregions with a changed surface potential in the presence of ethanol.