Epitaxially Grown Hexagonal Boron Nitride Films on Sapphire and Silicon Substrates

Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) films were epitaxially grown on (100)-Oriented silicon and c-plane sapphire (α-Al2O3) substrates via a low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) method with boron trichloride (BCl3) and ammonia (NH3) as the boron source and nitrogen source. Crystalline quality differences between hBN films grown on different substrates are studied and discussed by XPS, Raman spectroscopy, XRD and SEM characterizations. All the characterization results indicate that the sapphire substrate is more suitable for epitaxial growth of hBN films than silicon substrates.