Hydrogen Confinement in Hexagonal Boron Nitride Bubbles Using UV Laser Illumination.

Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) bubbles are of significant interest to micro-scale hydrogen storage thanks to their ability to confine hydrogen gas molecules. Previous reports of h-BN bubble creation from grown h-BN films require electron beams under vacuum, making integrating with other experimental setups for hydrogen production impractical. Therefore, in this study, the formation of h-BN bubbles is demonstrated in a 20 nm h-BN film grown on a sapphire substrate with a 213 nm UV laser beam.