Nearly single crystal, few-layered hexagonal boron nitride films with centimeter size using reusable Ni(111)

Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) is a dielectric insulator with a two-dimensional (2D) layered structure. It is an appealing substrate dielectric for many applications due to its favorable properties, such as a wide band gap energy, chemical inertness and high thermal conductivity[1]. Furthermore, its remarkable mechanical strength renders few-layered hBN a flexible and transparent substrate, ideal for next-generation electronics and optoelectronics in applications. However, the difficulty of preparing high quality large-area hBN films has hindered their widespread use. Generally, large-area hBN layers prepared by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) usually exhibit polycrystalline structures with a typical average grain size of several microns. It has been reported that grain boundaries or dislocations in hBN can degrade its electronic or mechanical properties. Accordingly, large-area single crystalline hBN layers are desired to fully realize the potential advantages of hBN in device applications. In this presentation, we report the growth and transfer of centimeter-sized, nearly single crystal hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) few-layer films using Ni(111) single crystal substrates. The hBN films were grown on Ni(111) substrates using atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD). The grown films were transferred to arbitrary substrates via an electrochemical delamination technique, and remaining Ni(111) substrates were repeatedly re-used. The crystallinity of the grown films from the atomic to centimeter scale was confirmed based on transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED). Careful study of the growth parameters was also carried out. Moreover, various characterizations confirmed that the grown films exhibited typical characteristics of hexagonal boron nitride layers over the entire area. Our results suggest that hBN can be widely used in various applications where large-area, high quality, and single crystalline 2D insulating layers are required.