Granted Patent B2

US 8,163,634 · App. 12/838,683 · Granted Apr 24, 2012

Abstract

Claims (17)

1. A method, comprising:

providing a crystalline cubic boron-nitride substrate with a diamond-type lattice and an exposed substantially (111)-surface; and

growing a graphene-like layer on the exposed substantially (111)-surface.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the (111)-surface has lateral lattice constants that match those of lattice constants of the graphene-like layer to, at least, about 3 percent.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the growing step includes epitaxially growing the graphene-like layer.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the growing step includes depositing one or more layers of carbon atoms on the substantially (111)-surface.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the growing step produces a graphene layer.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the growing includes annealing the deposited one or more layers of carbon atoms to produce the graphene-like layer.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising forming a layer of boron nitride on a portion of the graphene-like layer and forming a gate electrode on the layer of boron nitride.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the method produces a transistor in which a portion of the graphene-like layer is a conduction channel that is electrically controllable by the gate electrode.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

forming source and drain electrodes of the transistor;

wherein the conduction channel of the graphene-like layer is in contact with the source and drain electrodes.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the graphene-like layer is 1 to 3 carbon atoms thick.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the graphene-like layer is graphene.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the layer of boron nitride is a crystalline layer of boron nitride.

13. The method of claim 7 , wherein the growing step includes annealing a deposited one or more layers of carbon atoms to produce the graphene-like layer.

Assignments (6)