Carbon-assisted chemical vapor deposition of hexagonal boron nitride

Ariel Ismach, Harry Chou, Patrick Mende, Andrei Dolocan, Rafik Addou, Shaul Aloni, Robert Wallace, Randall Feenstra, Rodney S. Ruoff, Luigi Colombo

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

55 Scopus citations

Abstract

We show that in a low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system, the residual oxygen and/ or air play a crucial role in the mechanism of the growth of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) films on Ni foil ‘enclosures’. Hexagonal-BN films grow on the Ni foil surface via the formation of an intermediate boric-oxide (BOx) phase followed by a thermal reduction of the BOx by a carbon source (either amorphous carbon powder or methane), leading to the formation of single- and bi-layer h-BN. Low energy electron microscopy (LEEM) and diffraction (LEED) were used to map the number of layers over large areas; Raman spectroscopy, time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) were used to characterize the structure and physical quality of the ultra-thin h-BN film. The growth procedure reported here leads to a better understanding and control of the synthesis of ultra-thin h-BN films.

Original languageEnglish
Article number025117
Journal2D Materials
Volume4
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2017

Funding

FundersFunder number
Basic Energy Sciences
University of Texas at Austin
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Office of Science
Microelectronics Advanced Research Corporation
U.S. Department of DefenseN00014-10-1-0254
U.S. Department of EnergyDE-AC02-05CH11231
Texas Materials Institute2013-NE-2400
Institute for Basic ScienceIBSR019-D1
National Science FoundationDMR-0923096
UK Research and Innovation75243
Israel Science Foundation1784/15
W. M. Keck Foundation749046

    Keywords

    • Carbothermal reduction
    • Chemical vapor deposition
    • Hexagonal boron nitride
    • LEEM
    • Surface oxidation

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