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.-J., Summerfield, A., Davies, A., Cheng, T. S., Smith, E. F., Mellor, C. J., Khlobystov, A. N., Foxon, C. T., Eaves, L., Beton, P. H., & 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
• Contract Date: Oct 3, 2016