Van der Waals epitaxy of CdTe thin film on graphene

Abstract

van der Waals epitaxy (vdWE) facilitates the epitaxial growth of materials having a large lattice mismatch with the substrate. Although vdWE of two-dimensional (2D) materials on 2D materials have been extensively studied, the vdWE for three-dimensional (3D) materials on 2D substrates remains a challenge. It is perceived that a 2D substrate passes little information to dictate the 3D growth. In this article, we demonstrated the vdWE growth of the CdTe(111) thin film on a graphene buffered SiO2/Si substrate using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition technique, despite a 46% large lattice mismatch between CdTe and graphene and a symmetry change from cubic to hexagonal. Our CdTe films produce a very narrow X-ray rocking curve, and the X-ray pole figure analysis showed 12 CdTe (111) peaks at a chi angle of 70°. This was attributed to two sets of parallel epitaxy of CdTe on graphene with a 30° relative orientation giving rise to a 12-fold symmetry in the pole figure. First-principles calculations reveal that, despite the relatively small energy differences, the graphene buffer layer does pass epitaxial information to CdTe as the parallel epitaxy, obtained in the experiment, is energetically favored. The work paves a way for the growth of high quality CdTe film on a large area as well as on the amorphous substrates.