In situ XRR and GID investigation of 2D h-BN layers on liquid copper

Two-dimensional (2D) materials are one- or few- atom thick crystals with high thermal and mechanical stability and physical properties governed by extreme quantum confinement. With its unique crystalline structure, graphene exhibits a plethora of unconventional electronic phenomena, whose exploration was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics. Graphene is part of a larger family of 2D materials: one of its cousins, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), shares the same crystal lattice but exhibits different properties. The state-of-the-art method for its synthesis is chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on solid substrates, yet it is still difficult to control its thickness and structural quality over large scales. To enhance its quality, here we are aiming to CVD grow h-BN crystals on the surface of a liquid substrate (molten copper) while characterizing its structure using in situ grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GID) and X-ray reflectivity (XRR.)