Reversed texture in nanometric carbon/boron nitride multilayers

A structure-controlled series of carbon/boron nitride multilayers, with bilayer thicknesses from 1.25 to 160 nm has been grown by sequential evaporation of carbon and boron assisted with nitrogen ions. The minimum bilayer thickness for a stable stack is 2.9 nm. A turbostratic texture of the carbon and BN phases is evidenced even for small periods of the bilayers. Interestingly, BN and C basal planes of adjacent sub-layers exhibit perpendicular alignment between them: along the growth direction for h-BN rich layers, and parallel to the surface for the C rich ones.