Heteroepitaxial Growth of Two-Dimensional Hexagonal Boron Nitride Templated by Graphene Edges

Abstract

By adapting the concept of epitaxy to two-dimensional space, we show the growth of a single-atomic-layer, in-plane heterostructure of a prototypical material system--graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN). Monolayer crystalline h-BN grew from fresh edges of monolayer graphene with atomic lattice coherence, forming an abrupt one-dimensional interface, or boundary. More important, the h-BN lattice orientation is solely determined by the graphene, forgoing configurations favored by the supporting copper substrate.

Synthesis of High‐Quality Graphene and Hexagonal Boron Nitride Monolayer In‐Plane Heterostructure on Cu–Ni Alloy

“…Sequential growth of graphene/ h ‐BN on catalytic metal surfaces via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has been extensively studied to form in‐plane heterostructure 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. Templated growth of h ‐BN starting from CVD graphene edges on copper has been realized with lattice coherency of the two crystals 14, 16.…”

“…Templated growth of h ‐BN starting from CVD graphene edges on copper has been realized with lattice coherency of the two crystals 14, 16. However, defects may form in graphene domains due to its relatively low chemical stability during the h ‐BN growth.…”

Robustness of topologically protected transport in graphene–boron nitride lateral heterostructures

“…Lateral heterostructures are monolayers where two or more 2D materials are 'stitched' together to form 1D interfaces. It is possible to grow lateral heterostructures of graphene and insulating hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) [6,7,8,9,10,11,12], and much theoretical work, especially using ab initio methods, has been done to investigate their electronic properties [13,14,15,16,17]. However, the topological properties of these lateral heterostructures has received only very limited attention [18].…”

Progress on Crystal Growth of Two-Dimensional Semiconductors for Optoelectronic Applications

“…Such growth can be easily achieved by CVD epitaxial at the edge of the surface or domain of one TMDC material, owing to the small lattice mismatch among TMDCs. The vertically stacked hetero-structure has been successfully synthesized by a layer-by-layer epitaxial [87], and laterally stacked hetero-structure synthesis method though single-step CVD approaches have also been reported recently (examples illustrated in Figure 4a-e) [76,77,80,81,88,89]. Basically, heterojunctions are synthesized with solid phase metal oxide and sulfur power.…”