Wafer-scale and selective-area growth of high-quality hexagonal boron nitride on Ni(111) by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

We demonstrate wafer-scale growth of high-quality hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) film on Ni(111) template using metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). Compared with inert sapphire substrate, the catalytic Ni(111) template facilitates a fast growth of high-quality h-BN film at the relatively low temperature of 1000 °C. Wafer-scale growth of a high-quality h-BN film with Raman E 2g peak full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 18~24 cm −1 is achieved, which is to the extent of our knowledge the best reported for MOCVD. Systematic investigation of the microstructural and chemical characteristics of the MOCVD-grown h-BN films reveals a substantial difference in catalytic capability between the Ni(111) and sapphire surfaces that enables the selective-area growth of h-BN at pre-defined locations over a whole 2-inch wafer. These achievement and findings have advanced our understanding of the growth mechanism of h-BN by MOCVD and will contribute an important step toward scalable and controllable production of high-quality h-BN films for practical integrated two-dimensional materials-based systems and devices.

From 2-D to 0-D Boron Nitride Materials, The Next Challenge

“…The decomposition produces radicals and forms an extended portion of high-crystalline h-BN. This effect turned out to be hardly reproducible on sapphire, demonstrating the importance of the catalytic effect of the substrate [82].…”

“…Cross-sectional HR-TEM of h-BN on Ni (111) ( b ) and sapphire ( d ). Copyright 2019, with permission of [82].…”

Two-Dimensional Materials in Large-Areas: Synthesis, Properties and Applications

“…The stitching process entails selective ALD deposition of LiF on defects and grain boundary sites of hBN which produced chemically and mechanically stable hybrids for electrochemical Li plating [ 97 ]. Metal–organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) framework also offers a wafer-scale synthesis on Ni (111) substrates with sub-nanometer roughness of 0.605 nm; however, with average grain sizes of 75 µm [ 37 ]. Other than CVD and MOCVD, hBN has been synthesised by plasma-enhanced ALD [ 98 ] yet amorphous with a relatively large thickness of 20 nm [ 98 ].…”

Caveats in obtaining high-quality 2D materials and property characterization

“…quickly advanced beyond micrometer-sized flakes of 2D layers produced by the scotch-tape method and toward the realization of continuous films over large-area substrates (up to 300 mm diameter SiO 2 /silicon) [4,5,6,7,8,9], all enabled by simple vapor deposition techniques [10]. The most rudimentary of these techniques utilizes a tube furnace-based approach, including solid source precursors and, more recently, nucleation or seeding agents that can yield 2D films over large areas [4,11,12,13].…”