Metastable inorganic materials with unique properties are important in many practical applications, but their synthesis is often challenging. In physics, epitaxial stabilization, also known as pseudomorphic growth, is used to synthesize metastable polymorphs, but usually only as very thin films and on expensive single-crystal substrates. In chemistry, the templated growth of inorganic solid-state materials on self-assembled monolayers of organic molecules is reported. Bridging these two fields, here, we show that the synthesis of metastable polymorphs is possible up to large film thickness on amorphous substrates covered with thin inorganic seed layers that serve as templates. The stabilization of a 500-nm-thick metastable wurtzite (WZ) $\mathrm{Mn}\mathrm{Te}$ film by a 5-nm-thick $\mathrm{Zn}\mathrm{Te}$ seed layer sputtered on amorphous glass substrates is experimentally demonstrated. Theoretical calculations explain this experimental observation by the small WZ polymorph energy relative to that of the ground-state nickeline (NC) structure of $\mathrm{Mn}\mathrm{Te}$ and a large lattice constant difference of the two. The resulting metastable WZ-$\mathrm{Mn}\mathrm{Te}$ polymorph exhibits a wide band gap of 2.7 eV and a low hole density of ${10}^{12}{\mathrm{cm}}^{-3}$, which is relevant to optoelectronic applications. These properties are in sharp contrast to those of the narrow-band-gap highly doped NC-$\mathrm{Mn}\mathrm{Te}$ with 1.3 eV band gap and ${10}^{19}{\mathrm{cm}}^{-3}$ hole density. The difference in hole density is due to the calculated difference in the formation energy of manganese vacancy acceptor defects. Overall, these results suggest that templated growth on amorphous substrates with seed layers can be used to synthesize metastable polymorphs of other materials, without the need for expensive single-crystal substrates.

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具有种子层的非晶基质上亚稳态多晶型物的模板生长

具有独特性能的亚稳无机材料在许多实际应用中很重要，但是其合成通常具有挑战性。在物理学中，外延稳定，也称为假晶生长，用于合成亚稳多晶型，但通常仅作为非常薄的薄膜并在昂贵的单晶衬底上合成。在化学领域，据报道无机固态材料在有机分子自组装单分子层上的模板化生长。在这两个领域的桥梁中，我们表明，在覆盖有薄无机种子层（用作模板）的无定形基材上，亚稳态多晶型物的合成可以达到大膜厚。500纳米厚的亚稳纤锌矿（WZ）的稳定性$锰特$ 5纳米厚的胶片 $锌特$实验证明了溅射在非晶态玻璃基板上的晶种层。理论计算通过相对于基态镍基（NC）结构较小的WZ多晶型能量解释了该实验观察结果$锰特$两者的晶格常数相差很大。产生的亚稳WZ-$锰特$ 多晶型物的宽带隙为2.7 eV，空穴密度低 ${10}^{12}{\mathrm{厘米}}^{-3}$，与光电应用有关。这些特性与窄带隙高掺杂NC-$锰特$ 具有1.3 eV的带隙和 ${10}^{19}{\mathrm{厘米}}^{-3}$孔密度。空穴密度的差异是由于计算出的锰空位受体缺陷的形成能的差异。总体而言，这些结果表明，在具有种子层的无定形基材上进行模板化生长可用于合成其他材料的亚稳态多晶型，而无需昂贵的单晶基材。