Epitaxial growth of boron nitride on a Rh(1 1 1) multilayer system: Formation and fine tuning of a BN-nanomesh

The epitaxial growth of boron nitride on the surface of a Rh–YSZ–Si(1 1 1) multilayer system by CVD of borazine (HNBH)3 was investigated by low energy electron diffraction (LEED). The formation of a (14 × 14) h-BN on (13 × 13) Rh–YSZ–Si(1 1 1) superstructure was observed, which is different in size from an already reported (13 × 13) h-BN on (12 × 12) Rh(1 1 1) superstructure grown on a Rh(1 1 1) single crystal substrate (“h-BN-nanomesh”). We found hints that differences between the thermal expansion behaviour of the multilayer substrates and the single crystal substrate can be the reason for the formation of different sized superstructures.