title: Misfit accommodation mechanism at the heterointerface between diamond and cubic boron nitride.
abstract: Diamond and cubic boron nitride (c-BN) are the top two hardest materials on the Earth. Clarifying how the two seemingly incompressible materials can actually join represents one of the most challenging issues in materials science. Here we apply the temperature gradient method to grow the c-BN single crystals on diamond and report a successful epitaxial growth. By transmission electron microscopy, we reveal a novel misfit accommodation mechanism for a {111} diamond/c-BN heterointerface, that is, lattice misfit can be accommodated by continuous stacking fault networks, which are connected by periodically arranged hexagonal dislocation loops. The loops are found to comprise six 60° Shockley partial dislocations. Atomically, the carbon in diamond bonds directly to boron in c-BN at the interface, which electronically induces a two-dimensional electron gas and a quasi-1D electrical conductivity. Our findings point to the existence of a novel misfit accommodation mechanism associated with the superhard materials.
authors: Advanced Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8577, Japan.
authors: Chunlin
authors: C
authors: Chen
authors: Advanced Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8577, Japan.
authors: Zhongchang
authors: Z
authors: Wang
authors: Nanostructures Research Laboratory, Japan Fine Ceramics Center, 2-4-1 Mutsuno, Atsuta, Nagoya 456-8587, Japan.
authors: Takeharu
authors: T
authors: Kato
authors: Institute of Engineering Innovation, University of Tokyo, 2-11-16 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan.
authors: Naoya
authors: N
authors: Shibata
authors: National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan.
authors: Takashi
authors: T
authors: Taniguchi
authors: 1] Advanced Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8577, Japan [2] Nanostructures Research Laboratory, Japan Fine Ceramics Center, 2-4-1 Mutsuno, Atsuta, Nagoya 456-8587, Japan [3] Institute of Engineering Innovation, University of Tokyo, 2-11-16 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan.
authors: Yuichi
authors: Y
authors: Ikuhara