Fabrication of a freestanding boron nitride single layer and its defect assignments.

A freestanding single layer of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) has been successfully fabricated by controlled energetic electron irradiation through a layer-by-layer sputtering process. We have successfully resolved atomic defects in h-BN with triangle shapes by means of an aberration corrected high-resolution transmission electron microscopy with exit-wave reconstruction. Boron monovacancies are found to be preferably formed and the dominating zigzag-type edges are proved to be nitrogen terminated.