Related Posts
Wafa Alimi, PhD student at the LSPM, was awarded the 2nd Jacquet prize in its 2023 edition. This prize is awarded by the French metallurgy and materials society SF2M, and each year rewards the best electron microscope images nationwide. This year’s theme is “Materials & Energy”. The winning photo is entitled “high-Bright Nova” (h-BN), in reference to hexagonal boron nitride, Wafa’s subject of study. The photo was captured on the LSPM’s new Carl ZEISS FEG GEMINI S360 scanning electron microscope. It shows two-dimensional single crystals of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), or “white graphene”, produced by CVD in the LSPM’s DMC team. The triangular shape is attributed to the edges of N-terminated h-BN domains being more energetically favored than B-terminated ones. These triangles merge during growth to form stars. When excited by an electron beam, these crystals emit light with unusually high intensity.