Mg‐Facilitated Growth of Cubic Boron Nitride by Ion Beam‐Assisted Molecular Beam Epitaxy
Abstract
Trace amounts of Mg deposited on a diamond (100) substrate surface facilitate the growth of cubic boron nitride (c‐BN) by ion beam‐assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy indicates that films grown with Mg are cubic, while those without Mg are either hexagonal BN or lacking measurable cubic or hexagonal signatures. Initiating the growth with 0.005 monolayer equivalent of Mg is sufficient to yield epitaxial films with >99% c‐BN. Reflection high energy electron diffraction, electron energy loss spectroscopy, and X‐Ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicate the surface of the film to be sp2‐bonded BN, consistent with the results of other groups. High‐resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy reveals c‐BN with a high density of stacking faults and twinning. A model is proposed by which Mg locally diminishes the energy barrier to dissociation of the as‐deposited sp2‐bonded BN, facilitating the nucleation of c‐BN.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- May 02, 2022
- Source ID
- 10.1002/pssr.202200036
Entities
People
- Andrew C. Lang
- Bradford B. Pate
- Chaffra A. Affouda
- David F. Storm
- David J. Meyer
- Neeraj Nepal
- Sergey I Maximenko
- Tatyana I. Feygelson
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Office of Naval Research
- RTX
- United States Naval Research Laboratory