Nucleation and growth of atomically thin hexagonal boron nitride on Ni/MgO(111) by molecular beam epitaxy

• Published in: Journal of applied physics 2019-03, Vol.125 (11)
• Main Authors: Nakhaie, Siamak, Heilmann, Martin, Krause, Thilo, Hanke, Michael, Lopes, J. Marcelo J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied physics; Atomic force microscopy; Boron nitride; Chemical synthesis; Epitaxial growth; Magnesium oxide; Microscopy; Molecular beam epitaxy; Nucleation; Raman spectroscopy; Scanning electron microscopy; Thickness
• ISSN: 0021-8979; 1089-7550
• DOI: 10.1063/1.5081806

Scalable fabrication of atomically thin hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) films is highly important for the future implementation of this two-dimensional dielectric in various applications. In this contribution, we report on systematical growth experiments of few-layer thick h-BN, synthesized by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), on crystalline Ni films deposited on MgO(111). The samples are studied using scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and synchrotron-based grazing incidence diffraction. Growth parameters for the realization of continuous h-BN films with high structural quality are presented and discussed. Additionally, our study also aims at gaining insight into the nucleation and growth behavior of h-BN on the Ni surface, which is crucial for achieving further improvement in terms of crystal quality and thickness homogeneity of h-BN layers grown not only by MBE but also by other methods.