Self‐organized van der Waals epitaxy of layered chalcogenide structures

Highly oriented Sb2Te3 films were successfully deposited by RF-magnetron sputtering on both crystalline and amorphous substrates. A novel deposition mechanism and method are proposed based on van der Waals epitaxy. Due to the selective reactivity of the top surface atoms of the substrate with sputtered atoms, a Te monolayer is the first layer formed on the substrate, resulting in the subsequent layer-by-layer growth of the Sb2Te3 film independent of the crystallinity of the substrates. We believe that this method can be applied to the mass production of a wide range of various van der Waals solids, such as transition metal dichalcogenides and topological insulators for future electronics devices.

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