Growth of CdTe films on patterned graphene/Ge (100) by molecular beam epitaxy

Growth on patterned graphene/Ge provides a route to improve the film quality of large mismatch heteroepitaxy and simultaneously facilitate the transfer of epitaxial films; however, the growth process and its associated technical challenges remain unclear. In this work, the molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth of CdTe films on micro-scale patterned strip-like graphene/Ge (100), containing selective area epitaxy (SAE) of CdTe seeds on exposed Ge and the merging process of CdTe seeds, were systematically investigated. The effects of growth temperature on the SAE of CdTe seeds were studied in detail, and a growth model of the CdTe seeds was proposed. Additionally, we examined the morphology and crystal quality of CdTe films at different growth stages, identifying the suppression of CdTe nucleation on graphene during the CdTe seed growth and merging as a key challenge to obtain high-quality films on patterned graphene/Ge.