Deterministic three-dimensional self-assembly of Si through a rimless and topology-preserving dewetting regime
Research output: Contribution to journal › Research article › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
Abstract
Capillary-driven mass transport in solids is typically understood in terms of surface-diffusion limited kinetics, leading to conventional solid-state dewetting of thin films. However, another mass transport mechanism, so-called surface-attachment/detachment limited kinetics, is possible. It can shrink a solid film, preserving its original topology without breaking it in isolated islands, and leads to faster dynamics for smaller film curvature in contrast with the opposite behavior observed for surface-diffusion limited kinetics. In this work, we present a rimless dewetting regime for Si, which is ascribed to effective attachment-limited kinetics mediated by the coexistence of crystalline and amorphous Si phases. Phase-field numerical simulations quantitatively reproduce the experimental observations, assessing the main mass transport mechanism at play. The process can be exploited to obtain in a deterministic fashion monocrystalline islands (with 95% probability) pinned at approximate to 500 nm from a hole milled within closed patches.
Details
Original language | English |
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Article number | 103402 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Physical review materials |
Volume | 3 |
Issue number | 10 |
Publication status | Published - 7 Oct 2019 |
Peer-reviewed | Yes |
Externally published | Yes |
External IDs
Scopus | 85073456787 |
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ORCID | /0000-0002-4217-0951/work/142237408 |
Keywords
Keywords
- PHASE-FIELD MODEL, THIN-FILMS, CAPILLARY INSTABILITIES, THERMAL AGGLOMERATION, EVOLUTION, GROWTH, NANOWIRES, ISLANDS, MOTION, CAHN