Enhanced van der Waals epitaxy via electron transfer-enabled interfacial dative bond formation

Abstract: Enhanced van der Waals (vdW) epitaxy of semiconductors on layered vdW substrate is identified as the formation of dative bonds. For example, despite that NbSe2 is a vdW layered material, first-principles calculations reveal that the bond strength at CdTe-NbSe2 interface is five times as large as that of vdW interaction at CdTe-graphene interface. The unconventional chemistry here is enabled by an effective net electron transfer from Cd dangling-bond states at CdTe surface to metallic non-bonding NbSe2 states, which is a necessary condition to activate the Cd for enhanced binding with Se.