# In situ engineering hexagonal boron nitride in van der Waals heterostructures with selective SF<sub>6</sub> etching

https://mdr.nims.go.jp/datasets/5f9fc2f1-5f92-41e1-a27f-6b6e3a338a38

## File

- [Agarwal_2025_J._Phys._Mater._8_045006.pdf](https://mdr.nims.go.jp/filesets/1b68b746-b2cb-4c33-9048-b5a54796a2ce/download) ([Detail](https://mdr.nims.go.jp/filesets/1b68b746-b2cb-4c33-9048-b5a54796a2ce.md))

## Id

5f9fc2f1-5f92-41e1-a27f-6b6e3a338a38

## Local identifier



## Visibility

open_to_public

## State

published

## Created at

2026-02-28T11:19:07.722179Z

## Updated at

2026-03-02T23:30:26.618591Z

## Published at

2026-03-02T08:20:28.926605Z

## Doi



## First published url

https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7639/adfd15

## Date published

2025-10-01

## Recorded date published

2025-10-1

## Resource type

journal_article

## Manuscript type

vor

## Collection



## Title

- title: In situ engineering hexagonal boron nitride in van der Waals heterostructures
    with selective SF<sub>6</sub> etching
  title_type: original
  lang: en

## Description

- description: 'Van der Waals heterostructures are at the forefront in materials heterostructure
    engineering, offering the ultimate control in layer selectivity and capability
    to combine virtually any material. Hexagonal-boron nitride, the most commonly
    used dielectric material, has proven indispensable in this field, allowing on
    to encapsulate active 2D materials preserving their exceptional electronic quality.
    However, not all device applications require full encapsulation but rather require
    open surfaces, or even selective patterning of hBN layers. Here, we report on
    a procedure to engineer top hBN layers within Van der Waals heterostructures while
    preserving the underlying active 2D layers. Using a soft selective SF3 etching
    combined with a series of pre and post-etching treatments, we demonstrate that
    pristine surfaces can be opened with atomic flatness while preserving the active
    layers electronic quality. We benchmark our technique using graphene encapsulated
    with hBN Hall bar devices. Using Raman spectroscopy combined with quantum transport,
    we show high quality can be preserved in etched regions by demonstrating low temperature
    carrier mobilities > 200,000 cm2/Vs, ballistic transport probed through magnetic
    focusing, and intrinsic room temperature phonon-limited mobilities. Atomic force
    microscopy brooming and O2 plasma cleaning are identified as key pre-etching steps
    to obtaining pristine open surfaces that preserve electronic quality, while high
    temperature annealing may be employed to reduce slight fluorination that may occur
    by accidental over-etching. The technique provides a clean method for opening
    windows into mesoscopic Van der Waals devices that can be used for local probe
    experiments, patterning top hBN in-situ, and exposing 2D layers to their environment
    for sensing applications. '
  description_type: abstract
  lang: und

## Creator

- name: Hitesh Agarwal
  role: author
- name: Antoine Reserbat-Plantey
  role: author
- name: David Barcons Ruiz
  role: author
- name: Karuppasamy Pandian Soundarapandian
  role: author
- name: Geng Li
  role: author
- name: Vahagn Mkhitaryan
  role: author
- name: Johann Osmond
  role: author
- name: Helena Lozano
  role: author
- name: Kenji Watanabe
  role: author
  orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3701-8119
  organization: National Institute for Materials Science
- name: Takashi Taniguchi
  role: author
  orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1467-3105
  organization: National Institute for Materials Science
- name: Petr Stepanov
  role: author
- name: Frank H L Koppens
  role: author
- name: Roshan Krishna Kumar
  role: author

## Contact agent



## Publisher

organization: IOP Publishing

## Managing organization



## Keyword

- subject: 'hexagonal boron nitride (hBN)
    '
  schema: not_defined
- subject: selective etching
  schema: not_defined
- subject: 'van der Waals heterostructures
    '
  schema: not_defined

## Rights

- identifier: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
  date_licensed: 2025-09-10

## Other identifier(s)



## Data origin

- data_origin_type: other

## Embargo



## Journal

- title: 'Journal of Physics: Materials'
  issn: '25157639'
  volume: '8'
  issue: '4'
  article_number: '045006'

## Conference



## Related item



## Funding

- identifier: '665884'
  funder_name: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
- identifier: '820378'
  funder_name: European Union
- funder_name: Research Executive Agency
- funder_name: University of Manchester
- funder_name: ICFO
- identifier: FA8655-23-1-7047
  funder_name: Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- funder_name: United States Air Force
- identifier: '014431656'
  funder_name: SGR
- funder_name: DTU
- funder_name: ICFO, RWTH Aachen
- identifier: ANR-15-IDEX-01
  funder_name: AAP
- funder_name: ANR
- funder_name: Generalitat de Catalunya
- identifier: CEX2019-000910-S
  funder_name: Government of Spain
- funder_name: ERC
- identifier: '101131579'
  funder_name: EXQIRAL
- identifier: RYC2022-036118-I
  funder_name: ESF
- identifier: '726001'
  funder_name: Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

## Instrument



## Instrument operator



## Instrument managing organization



## Measurement method



## Specimen



## Chemical composition



## Structure for specimen



## Structural feature for specimen



## Specific property for specimen



## Process for specimen treatment



## Computational method



## Energy level/transition state



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## Fileset

- id: 1b68b746-b2cb-4c33-9048-b5a54796a2ce
  filename: Agarwal_2025_J._Phys._Mater._8_045006.pdf
  content_type: application/pdf
  size: 2107333
  md5: 7597d74e8378625359648489ba33593c

## Thumbnail

fileset_id: 1b68b746-b2cb-4c33-9048-b5a54796a2ce
filename: Agarwal_2025_J._Phys._Mater._8_045006.pdf