Lateral heterostructures of hexagonal boron nitride and graphene: BCN alloy formation and microstructuring mechanism

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the synthesis of lateral heterostructures of hexagonal boron nitride, graphene, and a B-C-N alloy on Ir(111), introducing a new in situ fabrication method for micro and nanostructures with tunable composition.

Contribution

It presents a novel synthesis approach for creating lateral heterostructures and alloys of BN, C, and N, with controlled composition and spatial extension, enabling new device fabrication.

Findings

Formation of B-C-N alloy within BN-graphene heterostructures.

Tunable composition and spatial extension of the alloy.

A new in situ fabrication method for micro and nanostructures.

Abstract

Integration of individual two-dimensional materials into heterostructures is a crucial step which enables development of new and technologically interesting functional systems of reduced dimensionality. Here, well-defined lateral heterostructures of hexagonal boron nitride and graphene are synthesized on Ir(111) by performing sequential chemical vapor deposition from borazine and ethylene in ultra-high vacuum. Low-energy electron microscopy (LEEM) and selected-area electron diffraction ({\mu}-LEED) show that the heterostructures do not consist only of hexagonal boron nitride (an insulator) and graphene (a conductor), but that also a 2D alloy made up of B, C, and N atoms (a semiconductor) is formed. Composition and spatial extension of the alloy can be tuned by controlling the parameters of the synthesis. A new method for in situ fabrication of micro and nanostructures based on decomposition of hexagonal boron nitride is experimentally demonstrated and modeled analytically, which establishes a new route for production of BCN and graphene elements of various shapes. In this way, atomically-thin conducting and semiconducting components can be fabricated, serving as a basis for manufacturing more complex devices.