Atomic Resolution Imaging of Grain Boundary Defects in Monolayer Chemical Vapor Deposition-Grown Hexagonal Boron Nitride

Gibb, Ashley; Alem, Nasim; Chen, Jianhao; Erickson, Kenneth L.; Ciston, Jim; Gautam, Abhay Raj Singh; Linck, Martin; Zettl, A.

doi:10.1021/ja400637n

Cited by 239 publications

(237 citation statements)

References 34 publications

(60 reference statements)

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“…This indicates that the incorporation of two sulphur atoms in the 5|7 dislocations can quench the radical electronic states of the 5|7 dislocations and therefore electronically stabilize the 6|8 dislocations. This distinctly differentiates TMDs from graphene [19][20][21] and hexagonal boron nitride 10 , in which 5|7 dislocations are also observed.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…When exposed to chemical functional groups, defects can also behave as highly reactive sites and efficiently trap different molecules 5,6 . A rich variety of dislocations have recently been observed in 2D crystals such as graphene, hexagonal boron nitride and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) [7][8][9][10][11][12] . Due to the high surface to volume ratio of 2D crystals, dislocations can lead to unique crystal geometries by introducing strain 9 .…”

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confidence: 99%

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Dislocation motion and grain boundary migration in two-dimensional tungsten disulphide

et al. 2014

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Dislocations have a significant effect on mechanical, electronic, magnetic and optical properties of crystals. For a dislocation to migrate in bulk crystals, collective and simultaneous movement of several atoms is needed. In two-dimensional crystals, in contrast, dislocations occur on the surface and can exhibit unique migration dynamics. Dislocation migration has recently been studied in graphene, but no studies have been reported on dislocation dynamics for two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides with unique metal-ligand bonding and a three-atom thickness. This study presents dislocation motion, glide and climb, leading to grain boundary migration in a tungsten disulphide monolayer. Direct atomic-scale imaging coupled with atomistic simulations reveals a strikingly low-energy barrier for glide, leading to significant grain boundary reconstruction in tungsten disulphide. The observed dynamics are unique and different from those reported for graphene. Through strain field mapping, we also demonstrate how dislocations introduce considerable strain along the grain boundaries and at the dislocation cores.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 80%

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Dislocation motion and grain boundary migration in two-dimensional tungsten disulphide

et al. 2014

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“…GBs are ubiquitous in 2D materials, forming at the interstices of distinct grains that nucleate during growth [21][22][23][24]. In case of graphene, GBs are strings of pentagon-heptagon (5|7) dislocations [24][25][26]; these are known to be nonmagnetic, as are GBs in h-BN [27,28].…”

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confidence: 99%

Intrinsic Magnetism of Grain Boundaries in Two-Dimensional Metal Dichalcogenides

et al. 2013

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Grain boundaries (GBs) are structural imperfections that typically degrade the performance of materials. Here we show that dislocations and GBs in two-dimensional (2D) metal dichalcogenides MX 2 (M = Mo, W; X = S, Se) can actually improve the material by giving it a qualitatively new physical property: magnetism. The dislocations studied all have a substantial magnetic moment of ~1 Bohr magneton. In contrast, dislocations in other well-studied 2D materials are typically non-magnetic. GBs composed of pentagon-heptagon pairs interact ferromagnetically and transition from semiconductor to half-metal or metal as a function of tilt angle and/or doping level. When the tilt angle exceeds 47° the structural energetics favor square-octagon pairs and the GB becomes an antiferromagnetic semiconductor. These exceptional magnetic properties arise from an interplay of dislocation-induced localized states, doping, and locally unbalanced stoichiometry. Purposeful engineering of topological GBs may be able to convert MX 2 into a promising 2D magnetic semiconductor.

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“…For example, the grain sizes of CVD-grown h-BN films are usually in the range from a few to 100 micrometers, which indicates a potentially high degree of polycrystallinity. Furthermore, unlike graphene, h-BN has a binary configuration and its lack of inversion symmetry results in more complex bonding structures with unfavorable homonuclear bonds (Gibb et al, 2013;Li et al, 2015;Liu et al, 2012). The presence of such defects is known to alter the properties of h-BN films (Becton & Wang, 2015;Li et al, 2015;Mortazavi et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Probing the Atomic Structures of Synthetic Monolayer and Bilayer Hexagonal Boron Nitride Using Electron Microscopy

Tay

Lin

Tsang³

et al. 2016

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Monolayer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is a phenomenal two-dimensional material; most of its physical properties rival those of graphene because of their structural similarities. This intriguing material has thus spurred scientists and researchers to develop novel synthetic methods to attain scalability for enabling its practical utilization. When probing the growth behaviors and structural characteristics of h-BN, the use of appropriate characterization techniques is important. In this review, we detail the use of scanning and transmission electron microscopies to investigate the atomic configurations of monolayer and bilayer h-BN grown via chemical vapor deposition. These advanced microscopy techniques have been demonstrated to provide intimate insights to the atomic structures of h-BN, which can be interpreted directly or indirectly using known growth mechanisms and existing theoretical calculations. This review provides a collective understanding of the structural characteristics and defects of synthetic h-BN films and facilitates a better perspective toward the development of new and improved synthesis techniques.

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Atomic Resolution Imaging of Grain Boundary Defects in Monolayer Chemical Vapor Deposition-Grown Hexagonal Boron Nitride

Cited by 239 publications

References 34 publications

Dislocation motion and grain boundary migration in two-dimensional tungsten disulphide

Dislocation motion and grain boundary migration in two-dimensional tungsten disulphide

Intrinsic Magnetism of Grain Boundaries in Two-Dimensional Metal Dichalcogenides

Probing the Atomic Structures of Synthetic Monolayer and Bilayer Hexagonal Boron Nitride Using Electron Microscopy

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