Van der Waals quantum dots on layered hexagonal boron nitride

Semiconductor quantum dots (QD) promise unique electronic, optical, and chemical properties, which can be exquisitely tuned by controlling the composition, size, and morphology. Semiconductor QDs have been synthesized primarily via two approaches, namely, epitaxial growth and wet-chemical synthesis. However, the properties of epitaxial QDs (eQDs) are susceptible to wetting layer formation and substrate dislocations, while colloidal QDs (cQDs) face fluorescence intermittency issues. Here, we report on the synthesis of a class of QDs that can overcome the fundamental limitations of eQDs and cQDs. By exploiting the sp² bonding of layered hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), we show that GaN QDs can be epitaxially grown through a weak van der Waals (vdW) interaction without two-dimensional wetting layer formation. The photoluminescence intensity of GaN van der Waals quantum dots (vQDs) is more than six times stronger than that of conventional GaN eQDs and no optical blinking was observed from vQDs. We show that the interadatom bond strength is about one order of magnitude stronger compared with that between the adatoms and the hBN substrate. This work shows that vQDs have unique properties that are difficult to achieve using existing QDs synthesis methods and thus can potentially enable new classes of high-performance optoelectronic and quantum devices.