Strain Solitons in an Epitaxially Strained van der Waals-like Material

Strain solitons are quasi-dislocations that form in van der Waals materials to relieve the energy associated with lattice or rotational mismatch. Novel electronic properties of strain solitons were predicted and observed. To date, strain solitons have been observed only in exfoliated crystals or mechanically strained crystals. The lack of a scalable approach toward the generation of strain solitons poses a significant challenge in the study of and use of their properties. Here, we report the formation of strain solitons with epitaxial growth of bismuth on InSb(111)B by molecular beam epitaxy. The morphology of the strain solitons for films of varying thickness is characterized with scanning tunneling microscopy, and the local strain state is determined from atomic resolution images. Bending in the solitons is attributed to interactions with the interface, and large angle bending is associated with edge dislocations. Our results enable the scalable generation of strain solitons.