Fig. 5: Trivacancy defect in graphene/h-BN/graphene heterostructures.

a Illustration of the bridge that can form between an undercoordinated B atom of an h-BN monolayer and the N atom located below it in a graphene/h-BN/graphene heterostructure with two h-BN layers. The cyan, blue, and brown spheres represent the C, N, and B atoms, respectively. b Alternative connection of the undercoordinated B atom with the C atom situated above it. c Energy barrier between the 0P and 1B configurations for two- to four-layer h-BN thin films. The barrier for bulk h-BN is shown as a reference. d Energy barrier heights from c for both the 0P-to-1B transition (SET) and 1B-to-0P transition (RESET). e Energy barrier heights for 4 h-BN layers embedded within graphene electrodes. The forward and backward 0P-to-1B transitions are reported as a function of the defect position.