Direct growth of hexagonal boron nitride/graphene heterostructures on cobalt foil substrates by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

Journal Article · Mon Jul 25 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4960165· OSTI ID:22594381

Xu, Zhongguang; Khanaki, Alireza; Tian, Hao; Zheng, Renjing; Suja, Mohammad; Liu, Jianlin ^[1]; Zheng, Jian-Guo ^[2]

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1. Quantum Structures Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Riverside, California 92521 (United States)
2. Irvine Materials Research Institute, University of California, Irvine, California 92697-2800 (United States)

Graphene/hexagonal boron nitride (G/h-BN) heterostructures have attracted a great deal of attention because of their exceptional properties and wide variety of potential applications in nanoelectronics. However, direct growth of large-area, high-quality, and stacked structures in a controllable and scalable way remains challenging. In this work, we demonstrate the synthesis of h-BN/graphene (h-BN/G) heterostructures on cobalt (Co) foil by sequential deposition of graphene and h-BN layers using plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. It is found that the coverage of h-BN layers can be readily controlled on the epitaxial graphene by growth time. Large-area, uniform-quality, and multi-layer h-BN films on thin graphite layers were achieved. Based on an h-BN (5–6 nm)/G (26–27 nm) heterostructure, capacitor devices with Co(foil)/G/h-BN/Co(contact) configuration were fabricated to evaluate the dielectric properties of h-BN. The measured breakdown electric field showed a high value of ∼2.5–3.2 MV/cm. Both I-V and C-V characteristics indicate that the epitaxial h-BN film has good insulating characteristics.

• OSTI ID: 22594381
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 109, Issue 4; Other Information: (c) 2016 Author(s); Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
BORON NITRIDES
BREAKDOWN
CAPACITORS
COBALT
DIELECTRIC MATERIALS
DIELECTRIC PROPERTIES
ELECTRIC FIELDS
FILMS
FOILS
GRAPHENE
GRAPHITE
LAYERS
MOLECULAR BEAM EPITAXY
MOLECULAR BEAMS
NANOELECTRONICS
PLASMA
SUBSTRATES
SYNTHESIS