Contents: (Adv. Mater. Interfaces 17/2017)

Hetero-Epitaxial -Al 2 O 3 and Silicon High-quality hetero-epitaxial -Al 2 O 3 on Si (111) is achieved with pulsed laser deposition, whose atom stacking orders are directly evidenced to be consistent with cubic spinel structures. An interfacial layer reveals the transition of atoms from -Al 2 O 3 to Si arrangements. Film quality degrades when layer-by-layer growth changes to island formation due to the presence of pinholes.