This doctoral thesis is devoted to real-time observations of growth of various low-dimensional materials in a scanning electron microscope (SEM): graphene, surface-guided zinc selenide nanowires and tin selenide nanoplatelets.

The first part of the thesis deals with graphene growth via chemical vapor deposition on liquid metal substrates (gold and copper) in SEM. We focus on the differences between graphene morphology and growth kinetics on solid and liquid catalysts, where we also use comparison with a theoretical model describing graphene coverage evolution. Direct observations of rapid oscillations of graphene flakes during their self-alignment on molten metal surfaces enable us to investigate the potential influence of electrostatic, van der Waals, and capillary interactions responsible for this phenomenon.

Next, we present two material systems examined using a custom-built SEM-compatible reactor for vapor-transport reactions. The first is the vapor-liquid-solid growth of gold-catalyzed surface-guided zinc selenide nanowires on nanogrooved sapphire. We study the influence of catalyst wetting and substrate cleanliness on nanowire morphology and alignment within the nanogrooves. Additionally, the synthesis of tin selenide platelets is explored, distinguishing between their lateral and vertical growth dynamics based on the contrast detected. Limitations of the experimental setup are identified and the requirements for the new reactor version are presented.