Stability and Topological Transformation of Liquid Droplets on VLS Nanowires

Published

January 19, 2025

Author(s)

Daniel Wheeler, Edwin Schwalbach, S H. Davis, P W. Voorhees, James Warren

Abstract

The Vapor-Liquid-Solid (VLS) method is one of the most popular techniques for growing semiconducting nanowires, and the stability of the liquid droplet is an important factor controlling wire morphology, and, ultimately, functionality. Earlier theoretical work on axisymmetric systems indicates that the lowest-energy liquid configuration varies with surface energies, wire radius, and fluid volume. We test these predictions with a fully dynamic phase-field model that incorporates viscous fluid flow. Under conditions predicted by this earlier theoretical work, we observe the pinning of the liquid to the top face of a nanowire, a condition necessary for wire growth. To study the stability of the droplet, we apply perturbations to the liquid shape and find that the system can transition to a metastable configuration, a local minimum in the energy landscape. Furthermore, the transition pathway to this local minimum depends on the magnitude of the perturbations. Under conditions that favor a liquid on the sidewalls of the wire, we observe a spontaneous transition of the liquid from a droplet to an annular configuration through an intermediate state that is not predicted by theory. The time scales and contact-line speeds for these transitions are determined through simulation and are consistent with approximations based on simple dimensional analysis.

Citation

Journal of Applied Physics

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3676451

Local Download

Keywords

phase field, VLS growth, nanowires

Citation

Wheeler, D. , Schwalbach, E. , Davis, S. , Voorhees, P. and Warren, J. (2025), Stability and Topological Transformation of Liquid Droplets on VLS Nanowires, Journal of Applied Physics, [online], https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3676451, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=909504 (Accessed October 28, 2025)