CVD synthesis of sp2-hybridized multilayer boron nitride films

Since graphene isolation in 2004, the 2D materials is a blooming research field. Due to its unique properties, sp2 hybridized boron nitride (BN) has been acknowledge as a key towards integration of other 2D materials in devices. Indeed, it is structurally very close to graphene – their lattice mismatch is only 1.7%a semiconductor, atomically flat and thermally and chemically inert. It is therefore a choice material to be used in the van der Waals heterostructures with other 2D materials either as a top layer to protect another 2D material from its environment [1], or as a dielectric interlayer [2] and mostly, as a flat substrate [3]. However, these applications have been demonstrated using mechanically exfoliated BN from low defective and highly crystalline single crystals. Yet, this process limits the size of the devices that can be created to sub millimeter scale. In order to develop devices at a wafer scale, it is therefore critical to master the synthesis sp2 hybridized BN layers at low cost, large scale and high quality.