Pressure-Dependent Growth of Wafer-Scale Few-layer h‑BN by Metal–Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition

A few-layer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) films with wafer-scale thickness uniformity were grown by using a multiwafer metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) system at relatively low temperature of 1050 °C under various reactor pressures. The effect of the reactor pressure on the structural properties of the h-BN films was systematically investigated by various spectroscopic and microscopic analysis tools including near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. We found that the defects in the MOCVD-grown h-BN films such as nitrogen vacancies and grain boundaries were strongly affected by the reactor pressure, which was elucidated by pressure-dependent change of Gibbs free energy for the nuclei formation and reaction rates. Based on our experimental observations, the growth strategies were discussed for realization of high-quality, multiwafer-scale uniformity h-BN films grown by MOCVD at temperature of 1050 °C.