Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Graphene and boron nitride lateral heterostructures for atomically thin circuitry

Nature volume 488, pages 627–632 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Precise spatial control over the electrical properties of thin films is the key capability enabling the production of modern integrated circuitry. Although recent advances in chemical vapour deposition methods have enabled the large-scale production of both intrinsic and doped graphene1,2,3,4,5,6, as well as hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN)7,8,9,10, controlled fabrication of lateral heterostructures in these truly atomically thin systems has not been achieved. Graphene/h-BN interfaces are of particular interest, because it is known that areas of different atomic compositions may coexist within continuous atomically thin films5,10 and that, with proper control, the bandgap and magnetic properties can be precisely engineered11,12,13. However, previously reported approaches for controlling these interfaces have fundamental limitations and cannot be easily integrated with conventional lithography14,15,16. Here we report a versatile and scalable process, which we call ‘patterned regrowth’, that allows for the spatially controlled synthesis of lateral junctions between electrically conductive graphene and insulating h-BN, as well as between intrinsic and substitutionally doped graphene. We demonstrate that the resulting films form mechanically continuous sheets across these heterojunctions. Conductance measurements confirm laterally insulating behaviour for h-BN regions, while the electrical behaviour of both doped and undoped graphene sheets maintain excellent properties, with low sheet resistances and high carrier mobilities. Our results represent an important step towards developing atomically thin integrated circuitry and enable the fabrication of electrically isolated active and passive elements embedded in continuous, one-atom-thick sheets, which could be manipulated and stacked to form complex devices at the ultimate thickness limit.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Process schematic and DF-TEM characterization of graphene heterostructures.
Figure 2: h -BN/G heterostructure synthesis and structural characterization.
Figure 3: h -BN/graphene electrical measurements.
Figure 4: Graphene junctions and heterostructures.
Figure 5: Graphene device arrays and statistics.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Novoselov, K. S. et al. Electric field effect in atomically thin carbon films. Science 306, 666–669 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Novoselov, K. S. et al. Two-dimensional gas of massless Dirac fermions in graphene. Nature 438, 197–200 (2005)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Zhang, Y., Tan, Y.-W., Stormer, H. L. & Kim, P. Experimental observation of the quantum Hall effect and Berry’s phase in graphene. Nature 438, 201–204 (2005)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Li, X. et al. Large-area synthesis of high-quality and uniform graphene films on copper foils. Science 324, 1312–1314 (2009)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Zhao, L. et al. Visualizing individual nitrogen dopants in monolayer graphene. Science 333, 999–1003 (2011)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Jin, Z., Yao, J., Kittrell, C. & Tour, J. M. Large-scale growth and characterizations of nitrogen-doped monolayer graphene sheets. ACS Nano 5, 4112–4117 (2011)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Kubota, Y., Watanabe, K., Tsuda, O. & Taniguchi, T. Deep ultraviolet light-emitting hexagonal boron nitride synthesized at atmospheric pressure. Science 317, 932–934 (2007)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Kim, K. K. et al. Synthesis of monolayer hexagonal boron nitride on Cu foil using chemical vapor deposition. Nano Lett. 12, 161–166 (2012)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Song, L. et al. Large scale growth and characterization of atomic hexagonal boron nitride layers. Nano Lett. 10, 3209–3215 (2010)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Ci, L. et al. Atomic layers of hybridized boron nitride and graphene domains. Nature Mater. 9, 430–435 (2010)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Liu, Y., Bhowmick, S. & Yakobson, B. I. BN white graphene with “colorful” edges: the energies and morphology. Nano Lett. 11, 3113–3116 (2011)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Pruneda, J. M. Origin of half-semimetallicity induced at interfaces of C-BN heterostructures. Phys. Rev. B 81, 161409 (2010)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Miyamoto, Y., Rubio, A., Cohen, M. & Louie, S. Chiral tubules of hexagonal BC2N. Phys. Rev. B 50, 4976–4979 (1994)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Wehling, T. O. et al. Molecular doping of graphene. Nano Lett. 8, 173–177 (2008)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Williams, J. R., Dicarlo, L. & Marcus, C. M. Quantum Hall effect in a gate-controlled p-n junction of graphene. Science 317, 638–641 (2007)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Dresselhaus, M. S., Jorio, A., Hofmann, M., Dresselhaus, G. & Saito, R. Perspectives on carbon nanotubes and graphene Raman spectroscopy. Nano Lett. 10, 751–758 (2010)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Chen, S. et al. Oxidation resistance of graphene-coated Cu and Cu/Ni alloy. ACS Nano 5, 1321–1327 (2011)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Huang, P. Y. et al. Grains and grain boundaries in single-layer graphene atomic patchwork quilts. Nature 469, 389–392 (2011)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Kim, K. et al. Grain boundary mapping in polycrystalline graphene. ACS Nano 5, 2142–2146 (2011)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Tsen, A. W. et al. Tailoring electrical transport across grain boundaries in polycrystalline graphene. Science 336, 1143–1146 (2012)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Yu, Q. et al. Control and characterization of individual grains and grain boundaries in graphene grown by chemical vapour deposition. Nature Mater. 10, 443–449 (2011)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Sun, Z. et al. Growth of graphene from solid carbon sources. Nature 468, 549–552 (2010)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Kim, Y.-J., Lee, J.-H. & Yi, G.-C. Vertically aligned ZnO nanostructures grown on graphene layers. Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 213101 (2009)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  24. Dean, C. R. et al. Boron nitride substrates for high-quality graphene electronics. Nature Nanotechnol. 5, 722–726 (2010)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Britnell, L. et al. Electron tunneling through ultrathin boron nitride crystalline barriers. Nano Lett. 12, 1707–1710 (2012)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Lee, G.-H. et al. Electron tunneling through atomically flat and ultrathin hexagonal boron nitride. Appl. Phys. Lett. 99, 243114 (2011)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  27. Sanchez-Yamagishi, J. et al. Quantum Hall effect, screening, and layer-polarized insulating states in twisted bilayer graphene. Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 076601 (2012)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  28. Meric, I. et al. Current saturation in zero-bandgap, top-gated graphene field-effect transistors. Nature Nanotechnol. 3, 654–659 (2008)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Moser, J., Barreiro, A. & Bachtold, A. Current-induced cleaning of graphene. Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 163513 (2007)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  30. Liang, X. et al. Toward clean and crackless transfer of graphene. ACS Nano 5, 9144–9153 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Radisavljevic, B., Radenovic, A., Brivio, J., Giacometti, V. & Kis, A. Single-layer MoS2 transistors. Nature Nanotechnol. 6, 147–150 (2011)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank P. McEuen and M. Spencer for discussions. This work was mainly supported by AFOSR grants (FA9550-09-1-0691 and FA9550-10-1-0410) and the NSF through the Cornell Centers for Materials Research (NSF DMR-1120296), which also provided the electron microscopy facilities. Additional funding was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. L.B. was partially supported by a Fullbright scholarship; R.W.H. and P.Y.H. were supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Device fabrication was performed at the Cornell NanoScale Facility, a member of the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network, which is supported by the National Science Foundation (grant ECS-0335765).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Mark P. Levendorf and Cheol-Joo Kim: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, 14853, New York, USA

    Mark P. Levendorf, Cheol-Joo Kim, Lola Brown & Jiwoong Park

  2. School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, 14853, New York, USA

    Pinshane Y. Huang, Robin W. Havener & David A. Muller

  3. Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science, Ithaca, 14853, New York, USA

    David A. Muller & Jiwoong Park

Authors
  1. Mark P. Levendorf
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Cheol-Joo Kim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Lola Brown
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Pinshane Y. Huang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Robin W. Havener
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. David A. Muller
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Jiwoong Park
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

M.P.L. and C.-J.K. contributed equally to this work. Synthesis, device fabrication, and electrical measurements and analysis were done by M.P.L. and C.-J.K. DF-TEM and data analysis were performed by L.B. and C.-J.K. EELS measurement and data analysis were conducted by P.Y.H. and D.A.M. Raman measurements and analysis were carried out by M.P.L. with assistance from R.W.H. J.P. designed the experiments and oversaw the research. M.P.L. and J.P. wrote the manuscript with assistance from R.W.H and input from all authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jiwoong Park.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

An application has been filed for a provisional US patent titled “Patterned regrowth for atomically thin graphene and boron nitride lateral heterostructures.” based on this work.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Text, Supplementary Figures 1-9, Supplementary Table 1 and Supplementary References. (PDF 5604 kb)

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Levendorf, M., Kim, CJ., Brown, L. et al. Graphene and boron nitride lateral heterostructures for atomically thin circuitry. Nature 488, 627–632 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11408

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11408

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing