Unravelling the room temperature growth of two-dimensional h-BN nanosheets for multifunctional applications

Room temperature growth of two-dimensional van der Waals (2D-vdW) materials is indispensable for state-of-the-art nanotechnology. The low temperature growth supersedes the requirement of elevated growth temperature accompanied with high thermal budgets. Moreover, for electronic applications, low or room temperature growth reduces the possibility of intrinsic film-substrate interfacial thermal diffusion related deterioration of functional properties and consequent device performance. Here, we demonstrated the growth of ultrawide-bandgap boron nitride (BN) at room temperature by using the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) process and demonstrated various functionalities for potential applications. Comprehensive chemical, spectroscopic and microscopic characterization confirms the growth of ordered nanosheet-like hexagonal BN. Functionally, nanosheets show hydrophobicity, high lubricity (low coefficient of friction), low refractive index within the visible to near-infrared wavelength range, and room temperature single-photon quantum emission. Our work unveils an important step that brings a plethora of applications potential for room temperature grown h-BN nanosheets as it can be feasible on any given substrate, thus creating a scenario for h-BN on demand at frugal thermal budget.