A new way of considering epitaxy has recently appeared thanks to the development of 2D materials. Whereas conventional epitaxy involving covalent bonds is limited in particular to a lattice parameter matching between the substrate and the epitaxial membrane, it appears that this constraint can be significantly released if the epitaxial growth is done by van der Waals interactions. 2D materials are ideal candidates for this type of growth since their surface does not have hanging bonds.
'Remote epitaxy' is a recent innovative and original approach that consists in cutting the classical covalent epitaxial growth by inserting a sheet of 2D material to allow the transmission of the “crystalline field” between the substrate and the epitaxial layer. The stress in the first epitaxial layers is then significantly reduced with the possibility of easily exfoliate and release (thanks to the low energy interface) the epitaxial membrane from its substrate.
This approach has been successfully used in the case of III-V materials with the intercalation of a graphene sheet. We propose in this thesis to study the “remote epitaxy” of II-VI semiconductors, CdTe and HgCdTe that are at the heart of many applications areas such as infrared detection and imaging, X-ray detection and medical applications or photovoltaic.
Several 2D materials will be studied, either reported or directly grown on the surface of the substrate. Graphene will be transferred by dry-method to generate clean interfaces. Preferably, 2D material will be directly grown on the substrate surface. This study will be done in collaboration with the 2D SPINTEC team.