The Growth of Hexagonal Boron Nitride Quantum Dots on Polycrystalline Nickel Films by Plasma-Assisted Molecular Beam Epitaxy

Nurzal Nurzal,Wei-Cyuan Huang,Su-Hua Chen,Cheng-Yu Liu,Ing-Song Yu

doi:10.3390/cryst12030347

Nurzal Nurzal, Wei-Cyuan Huang + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst12030347

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Journal: Crystals	Publication Date: Mar 3, 2022
Citations: 3	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: National Dong Hwa University, Institut Teknologi Padang

Abstract

In this report, quantum dots of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) were fabricated on the surface of polycrystalline Ni film at low growth temperatures (700, 750, and 800 °C) by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Reflection high-energy electron diffraction could trace the surface condition during the growth and perform the formation of BN. The observation of surface morphology by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy showed the nanodots of BN on Ni films. The existence of crystal h-BN quantum dots was determined by the analysis of Raman spectra and Kevin probe force microscopy. The cathodoluminescence of h-BN quantum dots performed at the wavelength of 546 and 610 nm, attributed to the trapping centers involving impurities and vacancies. Moreover, the influence of temperatures for the substrate and boron source cell was also investigated in the report. When the k-cell temperature of boron and growth temperature of substrate increased, the emission intensity of cathodoluminescence spectra increased, indicating the better growth parameters for h-BN quantum dots.

Highlights

Boron nitride (BN) is a chemically stable material in the group III-V compounds, applied especially for electronic and optoelectronic devices [1,2]
Crystal structures include hexagonal (h-BN), rhombohedral (r-BN), turbostratic (t-BN), wurtzite (w-BN), and cubic (c-BN). hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) has a similar structure to graphene with 1.7%
In this we focus on the growth of h-BN Quantum dots (QDs) on the

Summary

Introduction

Boron nitride (BN) is a chemically stable material in the group III-V compounds, applied especially for electronic and optoelectronic devices [1,2]. H-BN has a similar structure to graphene with 1.7%. Excellent physical properties of h-BN include high thermal conductivity [4] and wide bandgap [5]. H-BN is a 2D material applied for electronic devices as an insulating layer or a quantum tunnel barrier, but it has high potential for the applications in deep-ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (LEDs) [6]. Ion beam sputtering deposition (IBSD) [7], metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) [8], and plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PA-MBE) can be used for the growth of h-BN thin films [9–11]. PA-MBE has an exact growth control to produce high-quality epitaxy and at lower growth temperatures than others [12,13]. PA-MBE has an exact growth control to produce high-quality epitaxy and at lower growth temperatures than others [12,13]. h-BN has attracted attention for the growth on various substrates, such as Ni [10,14], graphene [15,16], cobalt [17,18], and sapphire [19,20]

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Discussion

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