title: Quasi-freestanding monolayer heterostructure of graphene and hexagonal boron nitride on Ir(111) with a zigzag boundary.
abstract: In-plane heterostructure of hexagonal boron nitride and graphene (h-BN-G) has become a focus of graphene research owing to its tunable bandgap and intriguing properties. We report herein the synthesis of a quasi-freestanding h-BN-G monolayer heterostructure on a weakly coupled Ir(111) substrate, where graphene and h-BN possess distinctly different heights and surface corrugations. An atomically sharp zigzag type boundary has been found to dominate the patching interface between graphene and h-BN, as evidenced by high-resolution Scanning tunneling microscopy investigation as well as density functional theory calculation. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy studies indicate that the graphene and h-BN tend to exhibit their own intrinsic electronic features near the patching boundary. The present work offers a deep insight into the h-BN-graphene boundary structures both geometrically and electronically together with the effect of adlayer-substrate coupling.
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanochemistry (CNC), Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University , Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Mengxi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yuanchang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Pengcheng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Jingyu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Donglin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Qiucheng
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Teng
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Yabo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Zhihai
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Xiaohui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Yanfeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Zhongfan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
keywords: STM; boundary type; graphene; h-BN; in-plane heterostructure