Patent ID: 8859412

Claim:
A method of fabricating a light-generating optoelectronic device, the method comprising: providing a starting substrate, wherein the starting substrate has a naturally lamellar single-crystal structure and is selected to induce a wurtzite crystal structure in a coating layer applied to the starting substrate, wherein the coating layer comprises a II-VI semiconductor; forming a light-generating optoelectronic structure, wherein said forming the light-generating optoelectronic structure includes forming the coating layer as an epitaxial layer on the starting substrate so that the coating layer has the wurtzite crystal structure, wherein the coating layer has a base composition of a II-VI semiconductor base composition or a I-VI semiconductor base composition; cleaving the starting substrate so as to provide a sliver of the starting substrate on which the coating layer is formed; and providing a pair of electrodes in electrical communication with the light-generating optoelectronic structure so that when a current is supplied across the light-generating optoelectronic structure via the pair of electrodes the light-generating optoelectronic structure emits light.