A flux growth technique for high quality cubic boron arsenide bulk single crystals

Abstract

The growth of single crystal cubic boron arsenide (c-BAs) has attracted considerable interest due to its high room-temperature thermal conductivity and high ambipolar electrical mobility. However, currently the only growth technique reported for c-BAs crystals is the chemical vapor transport (CVT) method, which exhibits several drawbacks with regard to size scalability and crystal quality control, thereby hindering the further advancement of this semiconductor material. Herein, we report a flux growth technique using liquid arsenic (l-As) as a reaction medium at high pressures for the growth of high-quality c-BAs crystals with several millimeters size. The outstanding properties, including high uniformity, lower defect density, and lower carrier concentration of the as-grown c-BAs single crystals from flux growth, have been verified via a combination of techniques including x-ray diffraction, Raman scattering, photoluminescence spectroscopy, and electrical transport measurements, in comparison with the CVT-grown crystals.