%0 Journal Article
%T Hexagonal Boron Nitride Crystal Growth from Iron, a Single Component Flux
%+ Kansas State University
%+ National University of Singapore (NUS)
%+ Pennsylvania State University (Penn State)
%+ Laboratoire Charles Coulomb (L2C)
%+ Texas Tech University [Lubbock] (TTU)
%A Li, Jiahan
%A Wang, Junyong
%A Zhang, Xiaotian
%A Elias, Christine
%A Ye, Gaihua
%A Evans, Dylan
%A Eda, Goki
%A Redwing, Joan M.
%A Cassabois, Guillaume
%A Gil, Bernard
%A Valvin, Pierre
%A He, Rui
%A Bin, Liu
%A Edgar, James H.
%< avec comité de lecture
%Z L2C:21-067
%@ 1936-0851
%J ACS Nano
%I American Chemical Society
%V 15
%N 4
%P 7032-7039
%8 2021-04-27
%D 2021
%R 10.1021/acsnano.1c00115
%K hexagonal boron nitride
%K two-dimensional material
%K crystal
%K metal flux
%K tunneling
%K Raman
%K photoluminescence
%Z Physics [physics]/Condensed Matter [cond-mat]/Materials Science [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]Journal articles
%X The highest quality hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) crystals are grown from molten solutions. For hBN crystal growth at atmospheric pressure, typically the solvent is a combination of two metals, one with a high boron solubility and the other to promote nitrogen solubility. In this study, we demonstrate that high-quality hBN crystals can be grown at atmospheric pressure using pure iron as a flux. The ability to produce excellent-quality hBN crystals using pure iron as a solvent is unexpected, given its low solubility for nitrogen. The properties of crystals produced with this flux matched the best values ever reported for hBN: a narrow Raman E2g vibration peak (7.6 cm–1) and strong phonon-assisted peaks in the photoluminescence spectra. To further test their quality, the hBN crytals were used as a substrate for WSe2 epitaxy. WSe2 was deposited with a low nucleation density, indicating the low defect density of the hBN. Lastly, the carrier tunneling through our hBN thin layers (3.5 nm) follows the Fowler–Nordheim model, with a barrier height of 3.7 eV, demonstrating hBN’s superior electrical insulating properties. This ability to produce high-quality hBN crystals in such a simple, environmentally friendly and economical process will advance two-dimensional material research by enabling integrated devices.
%G English
%L hal-03282908
%U https://hal.science/hal-03282908
%~ CNRS
%~ L2C
%~ MIPS
%~ UNIV-MONTPELLIER
%~ ANR
%~ UM-2015-2021