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Abstract
Thin films of boron nitride in its sp2-hybridized form (sp2-BN) have potential use in UV-devices and dielectrics. Here, we explore chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of sp2-BN on various cuts of sapphire; Al2O3(112̅0), Al2O3(11̅02), Al2O3(11̅00) and Al2O3 (0001) using two CVD processes with different boron precursors; triethylborane (TEB) and trimethylborane (TMB). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) showed that sp2-BN grows on all the sapphire substrates, using X-ray diffraction (XRD), 2θ/ω diffractograms showed that only Al2O3(112̅0) and Al2O3(0001) renders crystalline films and using phi(ɸ)-scans the growth of rhombohedral polytype (r-BN) films on these substrates is confirmed. These films are found to be epitaxially grown on an AlN interlayer with a higher crystalline quality for the films grown on the Al2O3(112̅0) substrate which is determined using omega(ω)-scans. Our study suggests that Al2O3(112̅0) is the most favorable sapphire substrate to realize the envisioned applications of r-BN films.
