Dielectric Characterization of h-BN by Preparing Metal-Insulator-Metal Capacitors

While hexagonal Boron Nitride (h-BN) mostly debuted in the 2D-materials research world as a substrate and an insulator, it has recently emerged as a material with great potential applications: ranging from nanoelectronics to single photon emission. Some of its noteworthy properties are electric insulation, low dielectric constant, easy synthesis, high-temperature stability, corrosion resistance, and chemical stability. Given this attention, CVD h-BN films have started to become commercially available. In this study, the topographic and electronic features of CVD h-BN films are characterized using probe microscopy techniques including conductive atomic force microscopy and Kelvin probe force microscopy. Then, we quantify the out-of-plane dielectric constant of CVD h-BN films by preparing Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) capacitors using thermally evaporated metal deposition. Together these results lead to a deeper understanding of the CVD h-BN film and of its application in electronic devices.