Twin coarsening in CdTe(111) films grown on GaAs(100)

Abstract We present a scanning force microscopy study of twin coarsening in CdTe(1 1 1) films grown on GaAs(1 0 0). Two types of CdTe(1 1 1) twins grow epitaxially and with equal probability on the long-range wavy surface structure developed by previous in situ annealing of the GaAs(1 0 0) substrate. Due to this initial substrate wavy structure, the grain coarsening during film growth leads to a quasi-one-dimensional rippled pattern. We propose a coarsening mechanism between twins driven by the formation of stacking faults.