Quasi-freestanding monolayer heterostructure of graphene and hexagonal   boron nitride on Ir(111) with a chiral boundary
  Monolayer lateral heterostructure of graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BNC) has attracted a growing attention mainly due to its tunable band-gap character and unique physical properties at interface. Hereby, we reported the first-time synthesis of a nearly freestanding h-BNC hybrid on a weakly coupled substrate of Ir (111), where graphene and h-BN possessing different surface heights and corrugations formed a perfect monolayer hybrid. With the aid of scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS), we demonstrated that h-BN can patch alongside the boundary of pre-deposited graphene domains and vice versa to form a seamless monolayer hybrid, with the realization of predominant zigzag type chiral boundaries at the interface. Density-functional theory calculations and STM/STS measurements aided us to reveal that this interface between graphene and h-BN were atomically sharp in aspects of the chemical bonding as well as the local electronic property from both theoretical and experimental points of view. 
Mengxi Liu, Yuanchang Li, Pengcheng Chen, Jingyu Sun, Donglin Ma, Teng   Gao, Yabo Gao, Qiucheng Li, Zhihai Cheng, Xiaohui Q...
physics.chem-ph cond-mat.mtrl-sci