Graphene nanoribbons with hBN passivated edges grown by high-temperature molecular beam epitaxy

Bradford, Jonathan; Cheng, Tin S.; James, Tyler S.S.; Khlobystov, Andrei N.; Mellor, Christopher J.; Watanabe, Kenji; Taniguchi, Takashi; Novikov, Sergei V.; Beton, Peter H.

Abstract

Integration of graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) in lateral heterostructures has provided a route to broadly engineer the material properties by quantum confinement of electrons or introduction of novel electronic and magnetic states at the interface. In this work we demonstrate lateral heteroepitaxial growth of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) passivated by hBN using high-temperature molecular beam epitaxy (HT-MBE) to grow graphene in oriented hBN trenches formed ex-situ by catalytic nanoparticle etching. High-resolution atomic force microscopy (AFM) reveals that GNRs grow epitaxially from the etched hBN edges, and merge to form a GNR network passivated by hBN. Using conductive AFM we probe the nanoscale electrical properties of the nanoribbons and observe quasiparticle interference patterns caused by intervalley scattering at the graphene/hBN interface, which carries implications for the potential transport characteristics of hBN passivated GNR devices.

Citation

Bradford, J., Cheng, T. S., James, T. S., Khlobystov, A. N., Mellor, C. J., Watanabe, K., …Beton, P. H. (2023). Graphene nanoribbons with hBN passivated edges grown by high-temperature molecular beam epitaxy. 2D Materials, 10(3), Article 035035. https://doi.org/10.1088/2053-1583/acdefc

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 16, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Jun 29, 2023
• Publication Date: Jul 1, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jun 29, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 30, 2023
• Journal: 2D Materials
• Electronic ISSN: 2053-1583
• Publisher: IOP Publishing
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 3
• Article Number: 035035
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/2053-1583/acdefc
• Keywords: graphene nanoribbons, hexagonal boron nitride, lateral heterostructure, conductive AFM, molecular beam epitaxy, nanoparticle etching
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/22186579
• Publisher URL: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2053-1583/acdefc