Excitonic recombinations in h-BN: From bulk to exfoliated layers

Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) and graphite are structurally similar but with very different properties. Their combination in graphene-based devices is now of intense research focus, and it becomes particularly important to evaluate the role played by crystalline defects on their properties. In this paper, the cathodoluminescence (CL) properties of hexagonal boron nitride crystallites are reported and compared to those of nanosheets mechanically exfoliated from them. First, the link between the presence of structural defects and the recombination intensity of trapped excitons, the so-called D series, is confirmed. Low defective h-BN regions are further evidenced by CL spectral mapping (hyperspectral imaging), allowing us to observe new features in the near-band-edge region, tentatively attributed to phonon replicas of exciton recombinations. Second, the h-BN thickness was reduced down to six atomic layers, using mechanical exfoliation, as evidenced by atomic force microscopy. Even at these low thicknesses, the luminescence remains intense and exciton recombination energies are not strongly modified with respect to the bulk, as expected from theoretical calculations, indicating extremely compact excitons in h-BN.