Atypical grain growth for (211) CdTe films deposited on surface reconstructed (100) SrTiO3 substrates

The (100) SrTiO3 substrate has emerged as the oxide substrate of choice for the deposition of a wide variety of materials. The substrate's unavoidable miscut leads to a step-terrace morphology when heated to high temperatures. This morphological transition is accompanied by an atomic scale repositioning of the uppermost terrace atoms, the nature of which is strongly dependent on the substrate temperature and ambient atmosphere used. Here, we …