Heteroepitaxial growth of sp²-hybridized boron nitride multilayer on nickel substrates by CVD: The key role of the substrate orientation

sp2-hybridized boron nitride is identified as a strategic material for many purposes related to the integration of graphene and two-dimensional materials in devices and the fabrication of van der Waals heterostructures. Thus, it becomes mandatory to have scalable synthesis and characterization procedures for providing suitable and reliable boron nitride material according to these identified needs. We report here on the growth of sp2-hybridized boron nitride film on polycrystalline nickel substrate by chemical vapor deposition with borazine as precursor. We propose a complete study of the influence of the underlying nickel grain orientation on the BN structure layers, in terms of thickness, crystallographic orientation, domain size and stacking. We show the heteroepitaxial growth of continuous, single crystalline hexagonal boron nitride multilayer film on nickel (111)-like grains. We highlight its ABC stacking sequence with AB stacking faults and show how it impacts the Raman and cathodoluminescence spectra.