Modeling Metal-Catalyzed Lateral Epitaxy

Recently, metal-catalyzed lateral epitaxy has been demonstrated to grow high quality lattice mismatch films via the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanism. A planar nanowire growth model can be adapted from a vertical nanowire growth model to simulate metal-catalyzed lateral epitaxy under a micro-crucible template. Simulation results reveal that the growth rate depends strongly on the film and catalyst size, as well as adatom diffusion length.