Boron nitride has attracted a great deal of attention as a two dimensional (2D) insulator for substrate and gate dielectric applications in 2D electronics. Development of a scalable technique to grow mono- to few-layer h-BN on microelectronics compatible substrates is desirable. Work on the growth of atomically smooth BN and graphene on sapphire and Si is presented in this paper. Two approaches are described: i) growth of h-BN and graphene on Si and sapphire substrates using a catalyzing Cu thin film, and ii) low pressure metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) growth on sapphire. In approach i) we discuss problems associated with the thermal instability of Cu at the interface with the substrate and show how the stability may be improved through the use of a thin Ni buffer layer or careful substrate selection. The correlation between Cu film morphology and h-BN (and graphene) quality is shown. In approach ii) we find two different growth modes, 3D island growth at low V/III ratios and self-terminating growth at high V/III ratios. Under self-terminating growth atomically smooth few-layer h-BN films are produced. Nitridation of the sapphire surface is found to promote this self-terminating growth by improving nucleation of BN on the substrate. Finally, we present results from the growth of graphene/h-BN on sapphire in a single process.

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), one of the transition-metal dichalcogenides, is a 2-dimensional semiconducting material that has a layered structure. Owing to excellent optical and electronic properties, the ultra-thin MoS2 film is expected to be used for various devices, such as transistors and flexible displays. In this study, we investigated the physical and chemical properties of sputtered-MoS2 film in the sub-10-nm region by Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). As the results of Raman spectroscopy investigations, we observed two Raman modes, E12g and A1g, in the 2-dimensional MoS2 films. As the thickness of the MoS2 film decreased, the peak frequency difference between E12g and A1g modes increased. From the XPS investigations, we confirmed sulfur reductions from the 2-dimensional MoS2 films. Therefore, we considered that the sulfur vacancies in the MoS2 film affected the Raman peak positions. Moreover, we performed the additional sulfurization of sputtered-MoS2 films. From the XPS and Raman investigations, the quality of the sputtered-MoS2 films was improved by the additional sulfurization.