Thermally evaporated tellurium possesses an intriguing crystallization behavior, where an amorphous to crystalline phase transition happens at near‐ambient temperature. However, a comprehensive understanding and delicate control of the crystallization process for the evaporated Te films is lacking. Here, the kinetics and dynamics of the crystallization of thermally evaporated Te films is visualized and modeled. Low‐temperature processing of highly crystalline tellurium films with large grain size and preferred out‐of‐plane orientation ((100) plane parallel to the surface) is demonstrated by controlling the crystallization process. Tellurium single crystals with a lateral dimension of up to 6 µm are realized on various substrates including glass and plastic. Field‐effect transistors based on 5 °C crystallized Te single grains (6‐nm‐thick) exhibit an average effective hole mobility of ≈100 cm2 V−1 s−1, and on/off current ratio of ≈3 × 104.

Tellurium, as an elemental van der Waals semiconductor, has intriguing anisotropic physical properties owing to its inherent 1D crystal structure. To exploit the anisotropic and thickness‐dependent behavior, it is important to realize orientated growth of ultrathin tellurium. Here, van der Waals epitaxial growth of Te on the surface of 2D transition metal dichalcogenides is systematically investigated. Orientated growth of Te with a thickness down to 5 nm is realized on three‐fold symmetric substrates (WSe2, WS2, MoSe2, and MoS2), where the atomic chains of Te are aligned with the armchair directions of substrates. 1D/2D moiré superlattices are observed for the Te/WSe2 heterostructure. This method is extended to the growth of SeTe alloys, providing flexibility for band engineering. Finally, growth of textured Te film is demonstrated on the lower‐symmetry surface of WTe2.

A method to manipulate the multipolar plasmonic response of a nanostructure in the quasi-static limit is introduced. The theoretical method puts on the same footing geometry, dielectric properties, and incident field and proceeds in two steps: it optimizes the geometry of the nanostructure to maximize the intensity of the scattering crosssection spectrum. This is done by calculating the coupling strengths of the different modes of the system to the external field, which the method naturally provides. Then, it exploits the symmetry of the incident electromagnetic field to enhance or suppress specific orders, which, in turn, tunes the field enhancement. We demonstrate the method by using a plasmonic dimer of nanospheres.

Rapid crystallization behavior of amorphous Te x[Formula: see text] thin films limits the use of these alloys as coatings and in optoelectronic devices. Understanding the short- and medium-range ordering of the amorphous structure and the fundamental physics governing the crystallization of the films is crucial. Although the lack of long range crystalline order restricts the characterization of the amorphous films, electron microscopy offers a way to extract information about the nanoscale ordering. In this paper, the local ordering of amorphous Te x[Formula: see text] thin films with [Formula: see text] grown by thermal evaporation is investigated using radial distribution function (RDF) and fluctuation electron microscopy (FEM) analysis. RDF results show that the nearest-neighbor distances of selenium (Se) and tellurium (Te) in their crystalline structure are preserved, and their bond lengths increase with the addition of Te. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations predict structures with interatomic distances similar to those measured experimentally. Additionally, fluctuations in atomic coordination are analyzed. Medium range order (MRO) analysis obtained from FEM and DFT calculations suggests that there are at least two populations within the chain network structure, which are close to the Se–Se and Te–Te intrachain distances. For the binary alloy with x >  0.61, Te x[Formula: see text], Te–Te like populations increase and Te fragments might form, suggesting that the glass forming ability decreases rapidly.