Spontaneous Relaxation of Heteroepitaxial Thin Films by van der Waals‐Like Bonding on Te‐Terminated Sapphire Substrates

Here the novel direct heteroepitaxial growth method of a 3D heteroepitaxial system is demonstrated on a 3D substrate, CdTe (111)/Al₂ O₃ (0001), which forms a spontaneous vdW-like bond at the interface, instead of the two 3D crystals being strongly bound. Despite a large lattice mismatch, the thin films are single crystals and maintain high quality due the compliance of the interface which accommodates strain. This weak bonding interface is …