General orientational characteristics of heteroepitaxial layers of AIIBVI semiconductors on sapphire and semiconductor substrates with diamond and sphalerite structures (AIIIBV)

X-ray reflection and transmission diffractometric studies of nonisostructural heteroepitaxy showed that the spatial rotation of the crystal lattice of the grown heteroepitaxial layer with respect to the substrate lattice about the crystallographic direction common for both lattices is the most general characteristic feature of their mutual crystallographic orientation. This feature leads to the coincidence of the 〈0001〉 polar axis of the heteroepitaxial layer of the A II B VI compounds with one of the 〈111〉 polar axes of the cubic substrate. The 30° and 90° rotations in the plane of heteroepitaxy and the vernier-type conjugating of the planar nets of the heteroepitaxial layer and the substrate are the particular cases of their mutual crystallographic orientations.