AbstractThe Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) class is a paradigmatic example of universality in nonequilibrium phenomena, but clear experimental evidences of asymptotic 2D-KPZ statistics are still very rare, and far less understanding stems from its short-time behavior. We tackle such issues by analyzing surface fluctuations of CdTe films deposited on polymeric substrates, based on a huge spatio-temporal surface sampling acquired through atomic force microscopy. A pseudo-steady state (where average surface roughness and spatial correlations stay constant in time) is observed at initial times, persisting up to deposition of ~10⁴ monolayers. This state results from a fine balance between roughening and smoothening, as supported by a phenomenological growth model. KPZ statistics arises at long times, thoroughly verified by universal exponents, spatial covariance and several distributions. Recent theoretical generalizations of the Family-Vicsek scaling and the emergence of log-normal distributions during interface growth are experimentally confirmed. These results confirm that high vacuum vapor deposition of CdTe constitutes a genuine 2D-KPZ system, and expand our knowledge about possible substrate-induced short-time behaviors.