Research Progress of Direct Growth of Two-dimensional Hexagonal Boron Nitride on Dielectric Substrates

doi:10.15541/jim20190086

Abstract

Abstract:

In recent years, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) two-dimensional (2D) atomic crystal has attracted considerable attention due to its unique structure, novel property and potential applications. The synthesis of high quality h-BN determines how far we can go for property research and practical applications. However, the sizes of h-BN domains obtained by mechanical exfoliation were limited to several micrometers. Transition metal substrates are usually used in the CVD growth of 2D h-BN layers, and thus a transfer process is required for fabricating h-BN-based electronic devices. Therefore, it is strongly desirable to directly synthesize 2D h-BN on dielectric substrates. In this article, we review recent process on the direct growth of h-BN by CVD, MOVPE, PVD on different dielectric substrates, including silicon-based substrates, sapphire, quartz, etc. Several approaches, such as, increasing substrate temperature, oxide-assisted nucleation, and surface nitridation were adopted to directly grow h-BN on dielectric substrates. Besides, we also summarized the main applications of 2D h-BN grown on dielectric substrates.

Key words: h-BN, 2D material, dielectric substrates, direct growth, review

CLC Number:

TM23
O782

ZHANG Xing-Wang, GAO Meng-Lei, MENG Jun-Hua. Research Progress of Direct Growth of Two-dimensional Hexagonal Boron Nitride on Dielectric Substrates[J]. Journal of Inorganic Materials, 2019, 34(12): 1245-1256.

Figures/Tables 7

Table 1 Comparison of different methods for preparing 2D h-BN on dielectric substrates

Preparation method	Advantages	Disadvantages
CVD	Low equipment cost, suitable for preparing large area sample	The complicated process, the interrelated growth parameters, many by-products
MOVPE	The cold wall reaction chamber which can prevent precursors from reacting on the inner wall	Highly toxic precursors, high growth temperature (>1000 ℃)
PLD, ALD and Magnetron sputtering	Easy to control the process, the low growth temperature (250-700 ℃)	The poor material quality, mostly amorphous
MBE	High material quality	Expensive equipment and high growth temperature (>1300 ℃)
Two-step method	The lower growth temperature (500-1000 ℃), simple process, suitable for preparing large area and patterned sample	Impurities are introduced during spin coating

Fig. 1 (a) AFM image of h-BN on SiO2 for 20 min with inset image showing the FFT data[26]; (b) SEM image of the BN sheets grown on Si[27]; (c) Synthesis of h-BN film on sapphire substrate using nc-G and corresponding cross-sectional TEM and HRTEM images[28]; Camera view of h-BN on (d) SiO2 and (e) quartz surface[29,30]; (f) Photograph of EM-h-BN on sapphire substrate; (g) LEED pattern of h-BN grown on sapphire substrate; HR-TEM images of multilayer h-BN grown (h) perpendicular to Al2O3 (11ˉ20) and (i) parallel to Al2O3 (11ˉ20)[31]

Fig. 2 (a) AFM micrographs with line scans and surface roughness measured on BN films grown at 1000 ℃ for 30 min[35]: (a1) V/III = 450, (a2) V/III = 2250; (b) Cross sectional TEM images of BN layer deposited using (b1) V/III ratio of 450 and (b2) 2700[35]; (c) Surface topography of h-BN films deposited for 8 h (c1) under continuous flow conditions and (c2) using FM scheme[36,37]

Fig. 3 (a) Schematic of PLD setup and the cross-sectional TEM image of h-BN on HOPG and a-BN on sapphire[42]; (b) High magnification SEM image of an amorphous BN film deposited on sapphire substrate[43]; (c) Cross-sectional TEM image of h-BN film on Si[44]; (d) High-magnification TEM image of the h-BN layered structure on Si[44]; (e-f) AFM images of h-BN grown on (e) sapphire and (f) HOPG for 3 h, 1690 ℃[45]

Fig. 4 (a) Growth mechanism of h-BN by diffusion and segregation[47] and (b) schematic illustration of process flow for synthesis of h-BN films by a two-step method[48]

Fig. 5 (a) Plot of RMS determined by AFM vs. V/III; (b) Thickness vs. V/III for BN films grown on sapphire with and without the pre-growth nitridation process with insetshowing thickness vs. growth time for films grown using a V/III ratio of 2250; (c) Cross-sectional STEM image of h-BN grown on sapphire and diffraction patterns for selected areas I and II; (d) Camera view of h-BN on Si3N4/Si; (e) Variations of h-BN film thickness at different CVD growth times for Si3N4/Si, SiO2/Si, and Si substrates[30, 49-53]

Fig. 6 (a) Response spectrum of the h-BN detector and I-V curves under 212 nm laser irradiation and dark condition[60]; (b) Microscope image of the transferred film and the photograph of the flexible metal-semiconductormetal device[61]; (c) The relative spectral response and photocurrent decay kinetics of h-BN MSM detector measured at Vb = 30 V (Inset showing a microscope image of the h-BN MSM photodetector)[62]; (d) Schematic illustrations of the MQW materials design, release and transfer processes[67]; (e) Electroluminescence spectra from the transferred LED[68]

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