Moiré-modulated conductance of hexagonal boron nitride tunnel barriers

Monolayer hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) tunnel barriers investigated using conductive atomic force microscopy reveal moiré patterns in the spatial maps of their tunnel conductance consistent with the formation of a moiré superlattice between the hBN and an underlying highly ordered pyrolytic graph...

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Main Authors: Summerfield, Alex, Kozikov, Aleksey, Cheng, Tin S., Davies, Andrew, Cho, Yong-Jin, Khlobystov, Andrei N., Mellor, Christopher J., Foxon, C. Thomas, Watanabe, Kenji, Taniguchi, Takashi, Eaves, Laurence, Novoselov, Kostya S., Novikov, Sergei V., Beton, Peter H.
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Published: American Chemical Society 2018
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Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52846/
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author Summerfield, Alex
Kozikov, Aleksey
Cheng, Tin S.
Davies, Andrew
Cho, Yong-Jin
Khlobystov, Andrei N.
Mellor, Christopher J.
Foxon, C. Thomas
Watanabe, Kenji
Taniguchi, Takashi
Eaves, Laurence
Novoselov, Kostya S.
Novikov, Sergei V.
Beton, Peter H.
author_facet Summerfield, Alex
Kozikov, Aleksey
Cheng, Tin S.
Davies, Andrew
Cho, Yong-Jin
Khlobystov, Andrei N.
Mellor, Christopher J.
Foxon, C. Thomas
Watanabe, Kenji
Taniguchi, Takashi
Eaves, Laurence
Novoselov, Kostya S.
Novikov, Sergei V.
Beton, Peter H.
author_sort Summerfield, Alex
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Monolayer hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) tunnel barriers investigated using conductive atomic force microscopy reveal moiré patterns in the spatial maps of their tunnel conductance consistent with the formation of a moiré superlattice between the hBN and an underlying highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) substrate. This variation is attributed to a periodc modulation of the local density of states and occurs for both exfoliated hBN barriers and epitaxially grown layers. The epitaxial barriers also exhibit enhanced conductance at localized subnanometer regions which are attributed to exposure of the substrate to a nitrogen plasma source during the high temperature growth process. Our results show clearly a spatial periodicity of tunnel current due to the formation of a moiré superlattice and we argue that this can provide a mechanism for elastic scattering of charge carriers for similar interfaces embedded in graphene/hBN resonant tunnel diodes.
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spelling nottingham-528462020-05-04T19:41:37Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52846/ Moiré-modulated conductance of hexagonal boron nitride tunnel barriers Summerfield, Alex Kozikov, Aleksey Cheng, Tin S. Davies, Andrew Cho, Yong-Jin Khlobystov, Andrei N. Mellor, Christopher J. Foxon, C. Thomas Watanabe, Kenji Taniguchi, Takashi Eaves, Laurence Novoselov, Kostya S. Novikov, Sergei V. Beton, Peter H. Monolayer hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) tunnel barriers investigated using conductive atomic force microscopy reveal moiré patterns in the spatial maps of their tunnel conductance consistent with the formation of a moiré superlattice between the hBN and an underlying highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) substrate. This variation is attributed to a periodc modulation of the local density of states and occurs for both exfoliated hBN barriers and epitaxially grown layers. The epitaxial barriers also exhibit enhanced conductance at localized subnanometer regions which are attributed to exposure of the substrate to a nitrogen plasma source during the high temperature growth process. Our results show clearly a spatial periodicity of tunnel current due to the formation of a moiré superlattice and we argue that this can provide a mechanism for elastic scattering of charge carriers for similar interfaces embedded in graphene/hBN resonant tunnel diodes. American Chemical Society 2018-06-18 Article PeerReviewed Summerfield, Alex, Kozikov, Aleksey, Cheng, Tin S., Davies, Andrew, Cho, Yong-Jin, Khlobystov, Andrei N., Mellor, Christopher J., Foxon, C. Thomas, Watanabe, Kenji, Taniguchi, Takashi, Eaves, Laurence, Novoselov, Kostya S., Novikov, Sergei V. and Beton, Peter H. (2018) Moiré-modulated conductance of hexagonal boron nitride tunnel barriers. Nano Letters . ISSN 1530-6984 boron nitride ; epitaxy ; growth ; tunnelling ; superlattice ; moiré ; heterostructure https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b01223 doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b01223 doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b01223
spellingShingle boron nitride ; epitaxy ; growth ; tunnelling ; superlattice ; moiré ; heterostructure
Summerfield, Alex
Kozikov, Aleksey
Cheng, Tin S.
Davies, Andrew
Cho, Yong-Jin
Khlobystov, Andrei N.
Mellor, Christopher J.
Foxon, C. Thomas
Watanabe, Kenji
Taniguchi, Takashi
Eaves, Laurence
Novoselov, Kostya S.
Novikov, Sergei V.
Beton, Peter H.
Moiré-modulated conductance of hexagonal boron nitride tunnel barriers
title Moiré-modulated conductance of hexagonal boron nitride tunnel barriers
title_full Moiré-modulated conductance of hexagonal boron nitride tunnel barriers
title_fullStr Moiré-modulated conductance of hexagonal boron nitride tunnel barriers
title_full_unstemmed Moiré-modulated conductance of hexagonal boron nitride tunnel barriers
title_short Moiré-modulated conductance of hexagonal boron nitride tunnel barriers
title_sort moiré-modulated conductance of hexagonal boron nitride tunnel barriers
topic boron nitride ; epitaxy ; growth ; tunnelling ; superlattice ; moiré ; heterostructure
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52846/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52846/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52846/