%0 Journal Article
%T Atomically thin boron nitride: a tunnelling barrier for graphene devices
%A Liam Britnell
%A Roman V. Gorbachev
%A Rashid Jalil
%A Branson D. Belle
%A Fred Schedin
%A Mikhail I. Katsnelson
%A Laurence Eaves
%A Sergey V. Morozov
%A Alexander S. Mayorov
%A Nuno M. R. Peres
%A Antonio H. Castro Neto
%A Jon Leist
%A Andre K. Geim
%A Leonid A. Ponomarenko
%A Kostya S. Novoselov
%J Physics
%D 2012
%I arXiv
%R 10.1021/nl3002205
%X We investigate the electronic properties of heterostructures based on ultrathin hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) crystalline layers sandwiched between two layers of graphene as well as other conducting materials (graphite, gold). The tunnel conductance depends exponentially on the number of h-BN atomic layers, down to a monolayer thickness. Exponential behaviour of I-V characteristics for graphene/BN/graphene and graphite/BN/graphite devices is determined mainly by the changes in the density of states with bias voltage in the electrodes. Conductive atomic force microscopy scans across h-BN terraces of different thickness reveal a high level of uniformity in the tunnel current. Our results demonstrate that atomically thin h-BN acts as a defect-free dielectric with a high breakdown field; it offers great potential for applications in tunnel devices and in field-effect transistors with a high carrier density in the conducting channel.
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.0735v1