Hexagonal Boron Nitride Tunnel Barriers Grown on Graphite by High Temperature Molecular Beam Epitaxy

Cho, Yong-Jin; Summerfield, Alex; Davies, Andrew; Cheng, Tin S.; Smith, Emily F.; Mellor, Christopher J.; Khlobystov, Andrei N.; Foxon, C. Thomas; Eaves, Laurence; Beton, Peter H.; Novikov, Sergei V.

Abstract

We demonstrate direct epitaxial growth of high-quality hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) layers on graphite using high-temperature plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Atomic force microscopy reveals mono- and few-layer island growth, while conducting atomic force microscopy shows that the grown hBN has a resistance which increases exponentially with the number of layers, and has electrical properties comparable to exfoliated hBN. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman microscopy and spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements on hBN confirm the formation of sp2-bonded hBN and a band gap of 5.9 ± 0.1 eV with no chemical intermixing with graphite. We also observe hexagonal moiré patterns with a period of 15 nm, consistent with the alignment of the hBN lattice and the graphite substrate.

Citation

Cho, Y., Summerfield, A., Davies, A., Cheng, T. S., Smith, E. F., Mellor, C. J., …Novikov, S. V. (2016). Hexagonal Boron Nitride Tunnel Barriers Grown on Graphite by High Temperature Molecular Beam Epitaxy. Scientific Reports, 6(1), Article 34474. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep34474

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 14, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Sep 29, 2016
• Publication Date: Sep 29, 2016
• Deposit Date: Oct 3, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 3, 2016
• Journal: Scientific Reports
• Electronic ISSN: 2045-2322
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 34474
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/srep34474
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/808791
• Publisher URL: http://www.nature.com/articles/srep34474