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Growth, domain structure, and atomic adsorption sites of hBN on the Ni(111) surface
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.5.094001
Authors:
Miriam
Raths
(Peter Grünberg Institut (PGI-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich; Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA) – Fundamentals of Future Information Technology; RWTH Aachen University)
,
Christina
Schott
(University of Kaiserslautern)
,
Johannes
Knippertz
(University of Kaiserslautern)
,
Markus
Franke
(Peter Grünberg Institut (PGI-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich; Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA) – Fundamentals of Future Information Technology)
,
You-Ron
Lin
(Peter Grünberg Institut (PGI-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich; Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA) – Fundamentals of Future Information Technology; RWTH Aachen University)
,
Anja
Haags
(Peter Grünberg Institut (PGI-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich; Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA) – Fundamentals of Future Information Technology; RWTH Aachen University)
,
Martin
Aeschlimann
(University of Kaiserslautern)
,
Christian
Kumpf
(Peter Grünberg Institut (PGI-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich; Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA) – Fundamentals of Future Information Technology; RWTH Aachen University)
,
Benjamin
Stadtmüller
(University of Kaiserslautern; Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz)
Co-authored by industrial partner:
No
Type:
Journal Paper
Journal:
Physical Review Materials
, VOL 5
State:
Published (Approved)
Published:
September 2021
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
18787
Abstract: One of the most important functionalities of the atomically thin insulator hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) is its ability to chemically and electronically decouple functional materials from highly reactive surfaces. It is therefore of utmost importance to uncover its structural properties on surfaces on an atomic and mesoscopic length scale. In this paper, we quantify the relative coverages of structurally different domains of a hBN layer on the Ni(111) surface using low-energy electron microscopy and the normal incidence x-ray standing wave technique. We find that hBN nucleates on defect sites of the Ni(111) surface and predominantly grows in two epitaxial domains that are rotated by 60 ∘ with respect to each other. The two domains reveal identical adsorption heights, indicating a similar chemical interaction strength with the Ni(111) surface. The different azimuthal orientations of these domains originate from different adsorption sites of N and B. We demonstrate that the majority ( ≈ 70 % ) of hBN domains exhibit a ( N , B ) = ( top , fcc ) adsorption site configuration while the minority ( ≈ 30 % ) show a ( N , B ) = ( top , hcp ) configuration. Our study hence underlines the crucial role of the atomic adsorption configuration in the mesoscopic domain structures of in situ fabricated two-dimensional materials on highly reactive surfaces.
Journal Keywords: Structural properties; 2-dimensional systems; Honeycomb lattice; Monolayer films; Low-energy electron microscopy; X-ray standing waves
Subject Areas:
Materials,
Physics
Instruments:
I09-Surface and Interface Structural Analysis
Added On:
21/09/2021 13:37
Discipline Tags:
Surfaces
Physics
Hard condensed matter - structures
Materials Science
interfaces and thin films
Technical Tags:
Diffraction
X-ray Standing Wave (XSW)