Universal growth of ultra-thin III–V semiconductor single crystals

Ultra-thin III-V semiconductors, which exhibit intriguing characteristics, such as two-dimensional (2D) electron gas, enhanced electron-hole interaction strength, and strongly polarized light emission, have always been anticipated in future electronics. However, their inherent strong covalent bonding in three dimensions hinders the layer-by-layer exfoliation, and even worse, impedes the 2D anisotropic growth. The synthesis of desirable ultra-thin III-V semiconductors is hence still in its infancy. Here we report the growth of a majority of ultra-thin III-V single crystals, ranging from ultra-narrow to wide bandgap semiconductors, through enhancing the interfacial interaction between the III-V crystals and the growth substrates to proceed the 2D layer-by-layer growth mode. The resultant ultra-thin single crystals exhibit fascinating properties of phonon frequency variation, bandgap shift, and giant second harmonic generation. Our strategy can provide an inspiration for synthesizing unexpected ultra-thin non-layered systems and also drive exploration of III-V semiconductor-based electronics.