Structural and electronic properties of epitaxial multilayer h-BN on Ni(111) for spintronics applications

TL;DR

This study explores the epitaxial growth and properties of multilayer h-BN on Ni(111), highlighting its potential for spintronics due to favorable structural and electronic characteristics confirmed by experiments and DFT calculations.

Contribution

It demonstrates controlled MBE growth of h-BN on Ni(111) and provides detailed structural and electronic analysis, including the metallic nature of the first h-BN layer at the interface.

Findings

Good structural agreement with bulk h-BN confirmed by TEM and spectroscopy

DFT calculations show the first h-BN layer at Ni interface is metallic

MBE is a viable alternative to exfoliation and CVD methods for h-BN growth

Abstract

Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is a promising material for implementation in spintronics due to a large band gap, low spin-orbit coupling, and a small lattice mismatch to graphene and to close-packed surfaces of fcc-Ni(111) and hcp-Co(0001). Epitaxial deposition of h-BN on ferromagnetic metals is aimed at small interface scattering of charge and spin carriers. We report on the controlled growth of h-BN/Ni(111) by means of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Structural and electronic properties of this system are investigated using cross-section transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electron spectroscopies which confirm good agreement with the properties of bulk h-BN. The latter are also corroborated by density functional theory (DFT) calculations, revealing that the first h-BN layer at the interface to Ni is metallic. Our investigations demonstrate that MBE is a promising, versatile alternative to both the exfoliation approach and chemical vapour deposition of h-BN.