Direct Growth of Antimonene on C-Plane Sapphire by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

oleh: Minghui Gu, Chen Li, Yuanfeng Ding, Kedong Zhang, Shunji Xia, Yusheng Wang, Ming-Hui Lu, Hong Lu, Yan-Feng Chen

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2020-01-01

Deskripsi

Monolayer antimony (antimonene) has been reported for its excellent properties, such as tuneable band gap, stability in the air, and high mobility. However, growing high quality, especially large-area antimonene, remains challenging. In this study, we report the direct growth of antimonene on c-plane sapphire substrate while using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). We explore the effect of growth temperature on antimonene formation and present a growth phase diagram of antimony. The effect of antimony sources (Sb<sub>2</sub> or Sb<sub>4</sub>) and a competing mechanism between the two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) growth processes and the effects of adsorption and cracking of the source molecules are also discussed. This work offers a new method for growing antimonene and it provides ideas for promoting van der Waals epitaxy.