Quantitative insights into the growth mechanisms of nanopores in hexagonal boron nitride

The formation of nanopores under electron irradiation is an ideal process to quantify chemical bonds in two-dimensional materials. Nowadays, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) allows investigating such nucleation and growth phenomena with incomparable spatial and temporal resolution. Moreover, theoretical calculations are usually exploited to confirm characteristic features of these atomic-scale observations. Nevertheless,...