Adsorption-induced gap states of h-BN on metal surfaces

The formation of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) monolayers on Ni(111), Rh(111), and Pt(111) has been studied by a combination of x-ray emission, angle-resolved valence band photoemission, and x-ray absorption in search for interface-induced gap states of h-BN. A significant density of both occupied and unoccupied gap states with N 2p and B 2p characters is observed for h-BN/Ni(111), somewhat less for h-BN/Rh(111) and still less for h-BN/Pt(111). X-ray emission shows that the h-BN monolayer is chemisorbed strongly on Ni(111) and very weakly on Pt(111). We associate the gap states of h-BN adsorbed on the transition metal surfaces with the orbital mixing and electron sharing at the interface because their density increases with the growing strength of chemisorption.