Effect of nucleation sites on the growth and quality of single-crystal boron arsenide

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to grow centimeter-scale boron arsenide single crystals using chemical vapor transport by introducing nucleation sites, highlighting the importance of nucleation material choice for thermal conductivity.

Contribution

It presents a novel technique for growing larger BAs single crystals with controlled nucleation sites, advancing the understanding of crystal growth for this material.

Findings

Successful growth of 7-mm BAs single crystal

Thermal conductivity varies with nucleation site material

Proper nucleation site selection is crucial for crystal quality

Abstract

Boron arsenide (BAs) has been the least investigated cubic III-V compound, but it has recently attracted significant attention since the confirmation of its unusually high thermal conductivity above 1000 W/m-K. However, determining how to achieve growth of a BAs single crystal on the centimeter scale remains unsolved, which strongly limits further research into, and potential applications of, this interesting material. Here we report our technique to grow a 7-mm-long BAs single crystal via the chemical vapor transport method by applying an additional nucleation site. The different thermal conductivity values obtained from BAs single crystals grown on nucleation sites of different compositions show the importance of choosing the proper nucleation-site material. We believe these findings will inspire further research into the growth of this unique semiconductor.