Unveiling the growth mode diagram of GaSe on sapphire

Abstract The growth of two-dimensional epitaxial materials on industrially relevant substrates is critical for enabling their scalable synthesis and integration into next-generation technologies. Here we present a comprehensive study of the molecular beam epitaxial growth of gallium selenide on 2-inch c-plane sapphire substrates. Using in situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED), in situ Raman spectroscopy, optical and scanning electron microscopies, we construct a diagram of the gallium selenide growth modes as a function of substrate temperature (530–650 °C) and Se/Ga flux ratio (5–110). The growth mode diagram reveals distinct regimes, including the growth of layered post-transition metal monochalcogenide GaSe with an unstrained in-plane lattice constant of 3.71 ± 0.01 $$\dot{{{{\rm{A}}}}}$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mover> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>A</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>°</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> </mml:math> and a partial epitaxial alignment on sapphire. This work demonstrates a RHEED-based pathway for synthesizing gallium selenide of specific phase and morphology, and the construction of a phase diagram for high vapor pressure III-VI compounds that can be applied to a wide range of other metal chalcogenide materials.