When epitaxy meets plasma: a path to ordered nanosheets arrays

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 3; no. 1; p. 2427
• Main Authors: Zhuang, Hao, Zhang, Lei, Fuchs, Regina, Staedler, Thorsten, Jiang, Xin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 13.08.2013; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 639/301/357/1018; 639/301/930/1032; 639/766/94; 639/925/357/1018; Crystallization - methods; Crystals; Defects; Fabrication; Humanities and Social Sciences; Materials Testing; multidisciplinary; Nanoparticles - chemistry; Nanoparticles - ultrastructure; Particle Size; Plasma Gases - chemistry; Science; Surface Properties
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep02427

The possibility of a controlled assembly of 2-dimensional (2D) nanosheets (NSs) into ordered arrays or even more sophisticated structures offers tremendous opportunities in the context of fabrication of a variety of NSs based devices. Reports of such ordered NSs are rare and all conventional “top-down” methods typically led to coarse structures exhibiting only limited surface quality. In this work, we demonstrate a path to directly synthesis ordered NSs arrays in a plasma activated chemical vapor deposition technique utilizing planar defects formed during hetero-epitaxial growth of crystals featuring a close-packed lattice. As an example, the synthesis of 3C-SiC NSs arrays with well-defined orientation on (001) and (111) Si substrates is shown. A detailed analysis identifies planar defects and the plasma environment as key factors determining the resulting 2D NSs arrays. Consequently, a “planar defects induced selective growth” effect is proposed to elucidate the corresponding growth mechanism.