Fabrication of Subnanometer-Precision Nanopores in Hexagonal Boron Nitride

Gilbert, S. Matt; Dunn, Gabriel; Azizi, Amin; Pham, Thang; Shevitski, Brian; Dimitrov, Edgar; Liu, Stanley; Aloni, Shaul; Zettl, Alex

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-12684-x

Title: Fabrication of Subnanometer-Precision Nanopores in Hexagonal Boron Nitride

Journal Article · Wed Nov 08 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Scientific Reports

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-12684-x· OSTI ID:1419454

Gilbert, S. Matt ^[1]; Dunn, Gabriel ^[1]; Azizi, Amin ^[2]; Pham, Thang ^[1]; Shevitski, Brian ^[3]; Dimitrov, Edgar ^[2]; Liu, Stanley ^[2]; Aloni, Shaul ^[4]; Zettl, Alex ^[5]

Univ. of Calirnia, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics; Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Materials Sciences Division; Univ. of Calirnia, Berkeley, CA (United States). Kavli Energy NanoScience Inst.
Univ. of Calirnia, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics; Univ. of Calirnia, Berkeley, CA (United States). Kavli Energy NanoScience Inst.
Univ. of Calirnia, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics; Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Materials Sciences Division; Univ. of Calirnia, Berkeley, CA (United States). Kavli Energy NanoScience Inst.; Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Molecular Foundry
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Molecular Foundry
Univ. of Calirnia, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics; Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Materials Sciences Division; Univ. of Calirnia, Berkeley, CA (United States). Kavli Energy NanoScience Inst.

Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of individual nanopores in hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) with atomically precise control of the pore shape and size. Previous methods of pore production in other 2D materials typically create pores with irregular geometry and imprecise diameters. In contrast, other studies have shown that with careful control of electron irradiation, defects in h-BN grow with pristine zig-zag edges at quantized triangular sizes, but they have failed to demonstrate production and control of isolated defects. In this work, we combine these techniques to yield a method in which we can create individual size-quantized triangular nanopores through an h-BN sheet. The pores are created using the electron beam of a conventional transmission electron microscope; which can strip away multiple layers of h-BN exposing single-layer regions, introduce single vacancies, and preferentially grow vacancies only in the single-layer region. We further demonstrate how the geometry of these pores can be altered beyond triangular by changing beam conditions. Precisely size- and geometry-tuned nanopores could find application in molecular sensing, DNA sequencing, water desalination, and molecular separation.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOD

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; HDTRA1-15-1-0036; DMR-1206512

OSTI ID:: 1419454

Journal Information:: Scientific Reports, Vol. 7, Issue 1; ISSN 2045-2322

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 39 works

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