Growth of Cubic Boron Nitride Thin Film on Diamond Surface
At a Glance
Section titled âAt a Glanceâ| Metadata | Details |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 2025-08-18 |
| Journal | Small |
| Authors | Abhijit Biswas, Tymofii S. Pieshkov, Cody L. Milne, Hector Gomez, Chenxi Li |
| Institutions | Arizona State University, United States Naval Research Laboratory |
| Citations | 1 |
Abstract
Section titled âAbstractâAbstract Highâpower electronics demand highâspeed, highly integrated electrical circuits with excellent heat dissipation. Owing to their ultrawideâbandgap, high thermal stability and chemical inertness, the heterostructure of cubic boron nitride (câBN) and diamond are predicted as promising powerâefficient materials for nextâgeneration electronics. Therefore, extensive efforts are ongoing to develop epitaxial câBN thin films on diamond with an atomically smooth interface, however with limited success due to the metastable nature of câBN. Here, câBN thin films are grown on (001) single crystal diamond substrates. Exhaustive spectroscopic and microscopic characterizations reveal a nearâepitaxial growth of ultrathin (â2 nm) câBN films on nitrogen functionalized diamond surfaces. However, the top surface of the films shows amorphous nature, possibly due to lattice relaxations as it is more energetically favorable than the cubic phase. Further, observed strain mediated epitaxy of fewâlayer câBN film has been corroborated with the first principle density functional theory (DFT) calculations, confirming that the modified diamond surface increases stability by reducing the energy barriers associated with câBN growth and favors the nearâinterface epitaxy. The observations may offer valuable insights for fully epitaxial câBN films on diamond, important for highâpower electronics.