Epitaxial growth of a 100-square-centimetre single-crystal hexagonal boron nitride monolayer on copper

Wang, Li1,2; Xu, Xiaozhi1; Zhang, Leining3,4; Qiao, Ruixi1; Wu, Muhong1,5; Wang, Zhichang6; Zhang, Shuai7; Liang, Jing1; Zhang, Zhihong1; Zhang, Zhibin1; Chen, Wang8; Xie, Xuedong8; Zong, Junyu8; Shan, Yuwei9; Guo, Yi1; Willinger, Marc10,11; Wu, Hui12; Li, Qunyang7; Wang, Wenlong2; Gao, Peng6,13; Wu, Shiwei9; Zhang, Yi8,14; Jiang, Ying6,15; Yu, Dapeng16; Wang, Enge5,6,15,17; Bai, Xuedong2; Wang, Zhu-Jun10,11; Ding, Feng3,4; Liu, Kaihui1

2019-06-06

10.1038/s41586-019-1226-z

NATURE   Impact Factor & Quartile

0028-0836

1476-4687

The development of two-dimensional (2D) materials has opened up possibilities for their application in electronics, optoelectronics and photovoltaics, because they can provide devices with smaller size, higher speed and additional functionalities compared with conventional silicon-based devices(1). The ability to grow large, high-quality single crystals for 2D components-that is, conductors, semiconductors and insulators-is essential for the industrial application of 2D devices(2-4). Atom-layered hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), with its excellent stability, flat surface and large bandgap, has been reported to be the best 2D insulator(5-12). However, the size of 2D hBN single crystals is typically limited to less than one millimetre(13-18), mainly because of difficulties in the growth of such crystals; these include excessive nucleation, which precludes growth from a single nucleus to large single crystals, and the threefold symmetry of the hBN lattice, which leads to antiparallel domains and twin boundaries on most substrates(19). Here we report the epitaxial growth of a 100-square-centimetre single-crystal hBN monolayer on a low-symmetry Cu (110) vicinal surface, obtained by annealing an industrial copper foil. Structural characterizations and theoretical calculations indicate that epitaxial growth was achieved by the coupling of Cu < 211 > step edges with hBN zigzag edges, which breaks the equivalence of antiparallel hBN domains, enabling unidirectional domain alignment better than 99 per cent. The growth kinetics, unidirectional alignment and seamless stitching of the hBN domains are unambiguously demonstrated using centimetre-to atomic-scale characterization techniques. Our findings are expected to facilitate the wide application of 2D devices and lead to the epitaxial growth of broad non-centrosymmetric 2D materials, such as various transition-metal dichalcogenides(20-23), to produce large single crystals.

SCI

English

NI Journal Papers ; NI论文 ; ESI Highly Cited Papers ; ESI Highly Cited Papers ; ESI Highly Cited Papers ; ESI Highly Cited Papers ; ESI Highly Cited Papers ; ESI Highly Cited Papers ; ESI Highly Cited Papers ; ESI Highly Cited Papers ; ESI Highly Cited Papers ; ESI Highly Cited Papers ; ESI Highly Cited Papers ; ESI Highly Cited Papers ; ESI Highly Cited Papers ; ESI Highly Cited Papers

Others

Institute for Basic Science of South Korea[IBS-R019-D1]

Science & Technology - Other Topics

Multidisciplinary Sciences

WOS:000470149000045

NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP

BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY;CLINICAL MEDICINE;MULTIDISCIPLINARY;PLANT & ANIMAL SCIENCE;ENVIRONMENT/ECOLOGY;SOCIAL SCIENCES, GENERAL;MICROBIOLOGY;ECONOMICS BUSINESS;IMMUNOLOGY;MATERIALS SCIENCE;COMPUTER SCIENCE;SPACE SCIENCE;MOLECULAR BIOLOGY & GENETICS;CHEMISTRY;NEUROSCIENCE & BEHAVIOR;PHYSICS;GEOSCIENCES;ENGINEERING

Web of Science

1.Peking Univ, Sch Phys, Collaborat Innovat Ctr Quantum Matter, State Key Lab Mesoscop Phys, Beijing, Peoples R China
2.Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Phys, Beijing Natl Lab Condensed Matter Phys, Beijing, Peoples R China
3.Inst Basic Sci, Ctr Multidimens Carbon Mat, Ulsan, South Korea
4.Ulsan Natl Inst Sci & Technol, Sch Mat Sci & Engn, Ulsan, South Korea
5.Songshan Lake Lab Mat Sci, Dongguan, Peoples R China
6.Peking Univ, Sch Phys, Int Ctr Quantum Mat, Beijing, Peoples R China
7.Tsinghua Univ, State Key Lab Tribol, Dept Engn Mech, Beijing, Peoples R China
8.Nanjing Univ, Sch Phys, Natl Lab Solid State Microstruct, Nanjing, Jiangsu, Peoples R China
9.Fudan Univ, Dept Phys, Key Lab Micro & Nano Photon Struct MOE, State Key Lab Surface Phys, Shanghai, Peoples R China
10.Eidgenoss Tech Hsch Zurich, Sci Ctr Opt & Electron Microscopy, Zurich, Switzerland
11.Max Planck Gesell, Fritz Haber Inst, Dept Inorgan Chem, Berlin, Germany
12.Tsinghua Univ, Sch Mat Sci & Engn, State Key Lab New Ceram Fine Proc, Beijing, Peoples R China
13.Peking Univ, Sch Phys, Electron Microscopy Lab, Beijing, Peoples R China
14.Nanjing Univ, Collaborat Innovat Ctr Adv Microstruct, Nanjing, Jiangsu, Peoples R China
15.Univ Chinese Acad Sci, Ctr Excellence Topol Quantum Computat, Beijing, Peoples R China
16.South Univ Sci & Technol China, Dept Phys, Shenzhen Key Lab Quantum Sci & Engn, Shenzhen, Peoples R China
17.Huairou Natl Comprehens Sci Ctr, Phys Sci Lab, Beijing, Peoples R China

Wang, Li,Xu, Xiaozhi,Zhang, Leining,et al. Epitaxial growth of a 100-square-centimetre single-crystal hexagonal boron nitride monolayer on copper[J]. NATURE,2019,570(7759):91-+.

Wang, Li.,Xu, Xiaozhi.,Zhang, Leining.,Qiao, Ruixi.,Wu, Muhong.,...&Liu, Kaihui.(2019).Epitaxial growth of a 100-square-centimetre single-crystal hexagonal boron nitride monolayer on copper.NATURE,570(7759),91-+.

Wang, Li,et al."Epitaxial growth of a 100-square-centimetre single-crystal hexagonal boron nitride monolayer on copper".NATURE 570.7759(2019):91-+.