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arXiv · 1510.04034

Structural and electronic properties of epitaxial multilayer h-BN on Ni(111) for spintronics applications

A. A. Tonkikh·E. N. Voloshina·P. Werner·H. Blumtritt·B. Senkovskiy·G. Güntherodt·S. S. P. Parkin·Yu. S. Dedkov
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Abstract

Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is a promising material for implementation in spintronics due to a large band gap, low spin-orbit coupling, and a small lattice mismatch to graphene and to close-packed surfaces of fcc-Ni(111) and hcp-Co(0001). Epitaxial deposition of h-BN on ferromagnetic metals is aimed at small interface scattering of charge and spin carriers. We report on the controlled growth of h-BN/Ni(111) by means of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Structural and electronic properties of this system are investigated using cross-section transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electron spectroscopies which confirm good agreement with the properties of bulk h-BN. The latter are also corroborated by density functional theory (DFT) calculations, revealing that the first h-BN layer at the interface to Ni is metallic. Our investigations demonstrate that MBE is a promising, versatile alternative to both the exfoliation approach and chemical vapour deposition of h-BN.

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A. A. Tonkikh, E. N. Voloshina, P. Werner, H. Blumtritt, B. Senkovskiy, G. Güntherodt, S. S. P. Parkin, Yu. S. Dedkov. 2015-10-14. Structural and electronic properties of epitaxial multilayer h-BN on Ni(111) for spintronics applications. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep23547

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