High p doped and robust band structure in Mg-doped hexagonal boron nitride

Abstract

in Mg-doped h-BN, nano-ARPES reveals p-type carrier concentration. Our nano-ARPES experiments demonstrate that the Mg dopants can significantly alter the electronic properties of h-BN by shifting the valence band maximum about 150 meV toward higher binding energies with respect to pristine h-BN. We further show that, Mg doped h-BN exhibits a robust, almost unaltered, band structure compared to pristine h-BN, with no significant deformation. Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) confirms the p-type doping, with a reduced Fermi level difference between pristine and Mg-doped h-BN crystals. Our findings demonstrate that conventional semiconductor doping by Mg as substitutional impurities is a promising route to high-quality p-type doped h-BN films. Such stable p-type doping of large band h-BN is a key feature for 2D materials applications in deep ultra-violet light emitting diodes or wide bandgap optoelectronic devices.