Our research described here was partly supported by
Kakenhi 22651056, 23310096, 19205026, Priority Areas 474
Grant in Aid for World Premiere Research Center Initiative (WPI) Program from MEXT, Japan.
BORON NITRIDE (BN) crystal is composed of boron and nitrogen atoms, belonging to so-called III-V compounds. The properties of the crystal is governed by its crystal structure. Roughly summarized, zinc-blend structured BN, which has a similar structure to diamond, is called cubic boron nitride (c-BN). c-BN is a very hard material, and its mechanical, thermal, and electronic properties are also similar to diamond.
In contrast, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is a very soft material. The softness comes from its layered crystal structure. Boron and nitrogen atoms of sp2 bonding form a 2 dimensional hexagonal layer, and the layers weakly stack with a somewhat different way to graphite. This weak stacking characterizes its softness. h-BN can easily deform by an weak external stress, which glides the hexagonal BN layers.

We study novel aspects of boron nitride, such as mechanical, structural, thermal, and electronic properties, for which no one has ever found.

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