Conformal Growth of Hexagonal Boron Nitride on High-Aspect-Ratio Silicon-Based Nanotrenches

Abstract

We successfully accomplished the conformal growth of sp2-hybridized few-layer h-BN over an array of Si-based nanotrenches with a 45 nm pitch and an aspect ratio of ∼7:1 by using the pulsed-mode metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) method. Surface-sensitive X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations revealed that the B–O bonds formed on the noncatalytic SiO2 surface act as nucleation sites for the subsequential formation of mixed sp2- and sp3-hybridized BON2 and BN3 at the very initial stage of the pulsed-mode injection of MOCVD precursors, enabling the conformal growth of few-layer sp2-hybridized h-BN with an excellent step coverage. We believe that these results can provide a broad avenue for the implementation of fascinating two-dimensional layered materials for current state-of-the-art three-dimensional Si-based nanoscale architectures, overcoming the downscaling limits.