Quantitative insights into the growth mechanisms of nanopores in hexagonal boron nitride

Ouafi Mouhoub, Rafael Martinez-Gordillo, Jaysen Nelayah, Guillaume Wang, Ji-Hoon Park, Ki Kang Kim, Young Hee Lee, Christophe Bichara, Annick Loiseau, Christian Ricolleau, Hakim Amara, and Damien Alloyeau
Phys. Rev. Materials 4, 014005 – Published 21 January 2020
PDFHTMLExport Citation

Abstract

The formation of nanopores under electron irradiation is an ideal process to quantify chemical bonds in two-dimensional materials. Nowadays, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) allows investigating such nucleation and growth phenomena with incomparable spatial and temporal resolution. Moreover, theoretical calculations are usually exploited to confirm characteristic features of these atomic-scale observations. Nevertheless, the full understanding of the ejection mechanisms of atoms requires a detailed investigation of the interplay between the very dynamic edge structure of expanding nanopores and the displacement energy of edge atoms (ED). Here, the dynamics of triangular nanopores in hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) under various electron dose rates was followed by aberration-corrected HRTEM with high temporal resolution to provide new in situ insights into their growth processes. We reveal that the ejection of atomic pairs is an elemental mechanism that considerably speeds up the expansion of nanopores. Atomic-scale calculations were exploited to quantify the structure-dependent ED of all the ejected edge atoms. They revealed strong variations of this threshold energy during the growth processes. This quantitative study reconciles theoretical and experimental measurements of the ejection rate of atoms in h-BN under electron irradiation, which is essential for nanopore engineering in this atomically thin membrane.

  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Received 30 July 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.4.014005

©2020 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Ouafi Mouhoub1,2, Rafael Martinez-Gordillo3, Jaysen Nelayah1, Guillaume Wang1, Ji-Hoon Park4,5, Ki Kang Kim6, Young Hee Lee4,5, Christophe Bichara3, Annick Loiseau2, Christian Ricolleau1, Hakim Amara1,2,*, and Damien Alloyeau1,†

  • 1Laboratoire Matériaux et Phénomènes Quantiques, Université de Paris–CNRS, F-75013 Paris, France
  • 2Laboratoire d’Etude des Microstructures, ONERA–CNRS, UMR 104, Université Paris Saclay, BP 72, 92322 Chatillon Cedex, France
  • 3Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, CINAM, 13288 Marseille, France
  • 4Center for Integrated Nanostructure Physics, Institute for Basic Science, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea
  • 5Department of Energy Science, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea
  • 6Department of Energy and Materials Engineering, Dongguk University Seoul, Seoul 04620, Republic of Korea

  • *Corresponding author: hakim.amara@onera.fr
  • damien.alloyeau@univ-paris-diderot.fr

Article Text (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand

Supplemental Material (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand

References (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand
Issue

Vol. 4, Iss. 1 — January 2020

Reuse & Permissions
Access Options
Author publication services for translation and copyediting assistance advertisement

Authorization Required


×
×

Images

×

Sign up to receive regular email alerts from Physical Review Materials

Log In

Cancel
×

Search


Article Lookup

Paste a citation or DOI

Enter a citation
×