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The chemical vapor deposition of hexagonal boron nitride layers from BCl3 and NH3 is highly beneficial for scalable synthesis with high controllability, yet multiple challenges such as corrosive reaction or by-product formation have hindered its successful demonstration. Here, we report the synthesis of polycrystalline hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) layers on copper foil using BCl3 and NH3. The sequential pulse injection of precursors leads to the formation of atomically thin h-BN layers with a polycrystalline structure. The relationship between growth temperature and crystallinity of the h-BN film is investigated using transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. Investigation on the initial growth mode achieved by the suppression of precursor supply revealed the formation of triangular domains and existence of preferred crystal orientations. The possible growth mechanism of h-BN in this sequential-pulsed CVD is discussed.

Piezoelectric devices transduce mechanical energy to electrical energy by elastic deformation, which distorts local dipoles in crystalline materials. Amongst electromechanical sensors, piezoelectric devices are advantageous because of their scalability, light weight, low power consumption, and readily built-in amplification and ability for multiplexing, which are essential for wearables, medical devices, and robotics. This paper reviews recent progress in active piezoelectric devices. We classify these piezoelectric devices according to the material dimensionality and present physics-based device models to describe and quantify the piezoelectric response for one-dimensional nanowires, emerging two-dimensional materials, and three-dimensional thin films. Different transduction mechanisms and state-of-the-art devices for each type of material are reviewed. Perspectives on the future applications of active piezoelectric devices are discussed.