We report an unexpected mechanism by which an epitaxial interface can form between materials having strongly mismatched lattice constants. A simple model is proposed in which one material tilts out of the interface plane to create a coincidence-site lattice that balances two competing geometrical criteria---low residual strain and short coincidence-lattice period. We apply this model, along with complementary first-principles total-energy calculations, to the interface formed by molecular-beam epitaxy of cubic Fe on hexagonal GaN and find excellent agreement between theory and experiment.
@article{arxiv.1106.2955,
title = {Epitaxial interfaces between crystallographically mismatched materials},
author = {Steven C. Erwin and Cunxu Gao and Claudia Roder and Jonas Lähnemann and Oliver Brandt},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1106.2955},
year = {2012}
}