Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) is a wide band gap semiconductor material that has attracted considerable attention in recent years. It has been used for many different applications, ranging from deep UV-lasing to single photon emitters [1, 2]. Owing to its unique 2D layered structure along with its large band gap and thermal/chemical stability, hBN layers have also been successfully employed as a dielectric layer in many field effect devices based on 2D materials [3]. In a different application, researchers are exploring the use of hBN as buffer layers for growing conventional III-V compound semiconductor materials through van der Waals epitaxy and other 2D materials, which may facilitate the development of flexible electronic devices such as solar cells, photodiodes, LEDs, etc [4].

 Many of the applications of hBN described above rely on mechanically exfoliating thin layers of hBN from commercially available bulk crystals. While mono- to few-layers of hBN can be readily obtained using this method, its lateral size is small (few hundred mm or less), thereby limiting its more widespread applications. We are exploring the growth of wafer-scale hBN using metal organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD).

In this seminar, I will present selected results on the growth and characterization study of wafer-scale hBN. In addition to this, three applications of hBN will be discussed, which are: (1) defect luminescence and single photon emitters; (2) passivation of silver nanoparticles with hBN for plasmonic applications and (3) utilizing hBN for van der Waals epitaxial growth of aluminium nitride templates for fabricating AlGaN optoelectronic devices. 

References

1.            Watanabe, K., T. Taniguchi, and H. Kanda, Direct-bandgap properties and evidence for ultraviolet lasing of hexagonal boron nitride single crystal. Nature Materials, 2004. 3(6): p. 404-409.

2.            Tran, T.T., et al., Quantum emission from hexagonal boron nitride monolayers. Nat Nano, 2016. 11(1): p. 37-41.

3.            Dean, C.R., et al., Boron nitride substrates for high-quality graphene electronics. Nature Nanotechnology, 2010. 5(10): p. 722-726.

4.            Kobayashi, Y., et al., Layered boron nitride as a release layer for mechanical transfer of GaN-based devices. Nature, 2012. 484(7393): p. 223-227.