Remote epitaxy beyond polarity
Remote epitaxy through a monolayer two-dimensional material-covered substrate establishes a crystallographic registry across the van der Waals (vdW) surface that enables the epitaxial growth, lift-off and transfer of single-crystalline films. A central belief in remote epitaxy is that the substrate facilitating the phenomenon must be a material with strong ionicity, as the interatomic electrostatic potential fluctuation in covalent and metallic materials is substantially attenuated by two-dimensional materials. Here, we show remote epitaxy is possible when the substrate is a metallic or covalently bonded material and experimentally demonstrate non-polar remote homo- and heteroepitaxy across a wide range of material systems, including both metals and semiconductors. The achieved non-polar remote interactions are designed and engineered by harnessing substrate conductivity and vicinal surface step-edge density. These findings indicate that remote epitaxy is universal and applicable to ionic, metallic, and covalent materials, expanding its capabilities and stimulating a plethora of new fundamental scientific questions about the mechanism of remote epitaxy.