Growth of Multi-Layer hBN on Ni(111) Substrates via MOCVD

In this paper we demonstrate a metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) process for growth of few layer hBN films on Ni(111) on sapphire substrates using triethylborane (TEB) and ammonia (NH3). Ni(111) was selected as a substrate due to its symmetry and close lattice matching to hBN. Using at...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCrystals (Basel) Vol. 9; no. 7; p. 339
Main Authors Siegel, Gene, Gryzbowcki, Gordon, Hilton, Albert, Muratore, Christopher, Snure, Michael
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.07.2019
Subjects
2D materials
Ammonia
Atomic force microscopy
Chemical vapor deposition
hBN
Investigations
Laboratories
Lattice matching
Metal surfaces
Metalorganic chemical vapor deposition
MOCVD
Multilayers
Nickel compounds
Organic chemicals
Organic chemistry
Sapphire
Spectrum analysis
Substrates
thin film
Thin films
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Summary:In this paper we demonstrate a metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) process for growth of few layer hBN films on Ni(111) on sapphire substrates using triethylborane (TEB) and ammonia (NH3). Ni(111) was selected as a substrate due to its symmetry and close lattice matching to hBN. Using atomic force microscopy (AFM) we find hBN is well aligned to the Ni below with in plane alignment between the hBN zig zag edge and the of Ni. We further investigate the growth process exploring interaction between precursors and the Ni(111) substrate. Under TEB pre-exposure Ni-B and graphitic compounds form which disrupts the formation of layered phase pure hBN; while NH3 pre-exposure results in high quality films. Tunnel transport of films was investigated by conductive-probe AFM demonstrating films to be highly resistive. These findings improve our understanding of the chemistry and mechanisms involved in hBN growth on metal surfaces by MOCVD.
ISSN:2073-4352
2073-4352
DOI:10.3390/cryst9070339