The (000 ¯ 1) face, by contrast, seems to form steps at almost any orientation. 26 Step-bunched nanofaceting has not been observed there previously, 26,27 but we show in Fig. 1 that a (1 ¯ 10 n ) facet is induced by pre-processing (see below). These results are qualitatively true of both 6 H - and 4 H -SiC polytypes. 26 It is perhaps expected that graphene growth should proceed first on facets, given the lesser bonding of Si atoms, and this has been observed on etching- induced (1 ¯ 10 n ) 20 and (11 ¯ 2 n ) 29 nanofacets. We propose exertion of control over the natural step bunching mechanism to prepare a crystal facet for self-organized graphene growth [see Fig. 2]. Given the discussion above, the best choice for this purpose may be (1 ¯ 10 n ). Controlled facets are achieved by photolitho- graphic definition of Ni lines on a SiC substrate perpendicular to the 〈 1 ¯ 100 〉 direction; these lines are transferred into the SiC by a fluorine-based reactive ion etch (RIE), which, while relatively simple technologically, allows nm-precision in the etch depth. As depicted in Fig. 2, it is the etch depth that ultimately defines the width of nanoribbons prepared. 15 nm etch depths were readily achieved in this work, which resulting ribbon width ( ∼ 30 nm) is suffi- ciently narrow to result in a sizable band gap at room temperature. Much narrower widths should be reachable with minimal effort. We have nevertheless chosen to focus here on ∼ 200 nm ribbon widths that allow convincing demonstration of the concept via accessibility to characterization probes including Raman spectroscopy, yet narrow enough to exhibit a band gap at low temperature. After removal of the Ni mask and cleaning, the crystal is heated to elevated temperatures (1200 – 1300 $^{◦}$C) at intermediate vacuum (10− 4 Torr) for 30 min., inducing SiC step flow; the abrupt step relaxes to a (1 ¯ 10 n ) facet, and the temperature is elevated to > 1450 $^{◦}$C for graphene growth as described previously. 6,7,18 Preferential growth on the facet is confirmed by Raman mapping as shown in Fig. 3b. The intensity of the 2D Raman band (2700 cm − $^{1}$) characteristic of graphene is mapped over a ∼ 100 nm SiC step and adjacent (0001) faces. Little to no intensity is observed on the horizontal surfaces, but significant intensity is seen at the step edge, indicating presence of graphene there. Note that the lateral resolution of the Raman instrument, at ∼ 1 µ m, is much larger than the facet width and the mapping grid spacing. Optimization of growth temperature and time will foreseeably enhance selectivity. Cross-sectional HRTEM images [see Fig. 3c] also evidence preferential growth. Multiple layers of graphene are observed on the facet, with only partial layers on the horizontal (0001) plane. The facet angle observed, 24 $^{◦}$, is in agreement with AFM measurements (not shown) 3