Nonaxisymmetric droplet unpinning in vapor-liquid-solid-grown nanowires

作者：Muralidharan Srevatsan^*; Voorhees Peter W; Davis Stephen H

来源：Journal of Applied Physics, 2013, 114(11): 114305.

DOI：10.1063/1.4821111

It is well known that the morphology of nanowire grown using the Vapor-Liquid-Solid mechanism depends substantially on the stability and configuration of the catalyst droplet. Whereas many of the earlier studies have focused on the conditions under which the liquid droplet remains stable, in the present article, we enquire as to what happens if and when the liquid droplet unpins from the corner. We employ a perturbation approach and arrive at the fact that there is a much larger tendency for the liquid droplet to unpin in an asymmetric manner than in a symmetric manner even in the absence of any underlying geometric asymmetry or anisotropy. The implications of this to a number of experimental observations are discussed.

• 出版日期2013-9-21
• 单位西北大学