title: Aligned Growth of Millimeter-Size Hexagonal Boron Nitride Single-Crystal Domains on Epitaxial Nickel Thin Film.
abstract: Atomically thin hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is gaining significant attention for many applications such as a dielectric layer or substrate for graphene-based devices. For these applications, synthesis of high-quality and large-area h-BN layers with few defects is strongly desirable. In this work, the aligned growth of millimeter-size single-crystal h-BN domains on epitaxial Ni (111)/sapphire substrates by ion beam sputtering deposition is demonstrated. Under the optimized growth conditions, single-crystal h-BN domains up to 0.6 mm in edge length are obtained, the largest reported to date. The formation of large-size h-BN domains results mainly from the reduced Ni-grain boundaries and the improved crystallinity of Ni film. Furthermore, the h-BN domains show well-aligned orientation and excellent dielectric properties. In addition, the sapphire substrates can be repeatedly used with almost no limit. This work provides an effective approach for synthesizing large-scale high-quality h-BN layers for electronic applications.
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Semiconductor Materials Science, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100083, P. R. China.|College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Junhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Semiconductor Materials Science, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100083, P. R. China.|College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xingwang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Semiconductor Materials Science, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100083, P. R. China.|College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Semiconductor Materials Science, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100083, P. R. China.|College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Zhigang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Semiconductor Materials Science, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100083, P. R. China.|College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Heng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Photochemical Conversion and Optoelectronic Materials, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Semiconductor Materials Science, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100083, P. R. China.|College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Haolin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Semiconductor Materials Science, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100083, P. R. China.|College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jingbi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: You
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Semiconductor Materials Science, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100083, P. R. China.|College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Semiconductor Materials Science, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100083, P. R. China.|College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Denggui
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Photochemical Conversion and Optoelectronic Materials, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xiang-Min
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Meng
keywords: aligned growth; epitaxy; hexagonal boron nitride; ion beam sputtering deposition; single-crystal domains