Formation of a monolayer h-BN nanomesh on Rh (111) studied using in-situ STM

As a member of the 2D family of materials,h-BN is an intrinsic insulator and could be employed as a dielectric or insulatinginter-layer in ultra-thin devices. Monolayerh-BN can be synthesized on Rh (111) surfaces using borazine as a precursor. Usingin-situvariable-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), we directly observed the formation ofh-BN in real-time. Byanalyzing the deposition under variable substrate temperatures and the filling rate of theh-BN overlayer vacant hollows duringgrowth, we studied the growth kinetics of how the borazine molecules construct theh-BN overlayer grown on the Rh surface.