Boron nitride nanomesh: an ultrathin insulating template

A key challenge in nanotechnology is the search of new materials suitable to act as nanoscale templates and also the growth of ultrathin insulating layers on metal surfaces which can be used to electronically decouple adsorbates from the substrate. Great success has been obtained in the formation of materials with templating or insulating capabilities, however, the combination of both abilities in the same system has not been yet achieved. In this work we show that the recently discovered BN nanomesh combines both properties: templating at the nanoscale and electronic decoupling from the substrate. By covering the Rh(111) surface only partially with the Boron Nitride (BN) nanomesh, we have been able to directly compare the electronic properties of the BN nanomesh with the ones of the bare metal. Our low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy experiments show that the BN nanomesh acts both as a nanotemplate, laterally ordering Co clusters deposited on it with a nearest neighbor distance of 3.2 nm, and as an insulator, electronically decoupling the clusters from the metal substrate