When a team of University of Illinois engineers set out to
grow nanowires of a compound semiconductor on top of a sheet of graphene, they
did not expect to discover a new paradigm of epitaxy.
The self-assembled wires have a core of one composition and
an outer layer of another, a desired trait for many advanced electronics
applications. Led by professor Xiuling Li, in collaboration with professors
Eric Pop and Joseph Lyding, all professors of electrical and computer
engineering, the team published its findings in the journal Nano Letters.