  Owing to its array of unique properties, graphene is a promising material for
a wide variety of applications. Being two-dimensional, the properties of
graphene are also easily tuned via proximity to other materials. In this work,
we investigate the possibility of inducing electrical and optical anisotropy in
graphene by interfacing it with other anisotropic carbon systems, including
nanoporous graphene and arrays of graphene nanoribbons. We find that such
materials do indeed induce such anisotropy in graphene, while also preserving
the unique properties offered by graphene's Dirac band structure, namely its
superior charge transport and long-wavelength optical absorption. The optical
anisotropy makes such heterostructures interesting for their use in
applications related to long-wavelength polarimetry, while the electrical
anisotropy may be valuable for enhancing the performance of graphene
photothermoelectric detectors.
