In selective-area epitaxy, precursors supplied by metal-organic vapour-phase epitaxy incorporate on exposed crystalline InP through patterned openings in a silicon-nitride mask. Epitaxial facet-dependent incorporation and surface diffusion select axial and radial growth rates. Advantages include lithographic position and pitch control, an epitaxial orientation relationship and the absence of a foreign metal catalyst. Limitations include mask patterning, selective nucleation requirements, facet-dependent composition, loading and pitch effects, and unwanted radial growth.
In vapour-liquid-solid growth, precursors decompose and supply material to a liquid catalyst droplet; supersaturation drives precipitation at the liquid-solid interface. Droplet size can control wire diameter and enable high aspect ratios. Limitations include possible catalyst contamination, droplet stability and coarsening, composition memory at heterointerfaces, and restrictions from the catalyst phase diagram. Patterned catalyst placement can also control position, so positional ordering is not exclusive to selective-area growth. Conversely, selective-area wires are not automatically free of taper or compositional interfaces.[ref]
For , maximize the growth rate over real wavenumbers. Its derivative is , so
The second derivative at either nonzero maximizer is . If , there is no positive growth rate in this model.
To compare growth with transport, restore dimensions. With and , the maximal dimensional growth rate is
The corresponding dimensional wavenumber is , independent of the arbitrary reference length . Let be the physical slope length. A disturbance convected at the leading kinematic wave speed has residence time and accumulates the growth exponent
Thus implies , and the amplitude multiplier remains close to one while the disturbance passes down the slope. This is the requested convective amplification length criterion. With the exact coefficients used here, one e-fold of convected growth occurs at ; the stated much-less-than criterion is unaffected by this order-one factor. It is a transport-versus-growth estimate within the long-wave approximation, rather than a boundary-value stability theorem for every possible inlet and outlet condition.
In a reduced sediment-bed model with normalized discharge one, water momentum gives , while concentration adaptation and bed exchange give . Linearizing about yields and . Elimination proves the displayed dispersion relation.
For , the growth rate is , positive exactly on the supercritical side for nonzero . The phase speed is , so unstable bedforms migrate upstream and are antidunes. At high wavenumber growth approaches a finite plateau rather than becoming unbounded. This closure selects no finite fastest wavelength; short-scale selection needs additional physics. The critical limit and a vanishing entrainment derivative are degenerate cases outside the displayed conclusion.
Combining the Exner equation, sediment transport saturation, bed shear response, and inclined-bed sediment threshold gives a competition between upstream forcing and downstream relaxation. With , , , and positive wavenumber , the growth rate is . Thus permits long-wave growth when , while a finite saturation length stabilizes shorter waves.
Selective-area epitaxy 2026-10-20
Epitaxial crystal growth confined to exposed substrate regions defined by a growth-inhibiting mask. Pattern position and pitch can control wire nucleation, while transport and facet-dependent incorporation influence growth rate and composition.
Stress-free convection growth-rate polynomial Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
For a fixed-temperature layer with stress-free boundary conditions, a vertical Fourier sine series has , where is horizontal wavenumber. The coupled vertical velocity and temperature amplitudes satisfy the displayed quadratic for their growth rate . Its roots are real for positive Rayleigh number, while both roots have negative real parts for negative Rayleigh number. Setting gives the free-slip convection neutral curve.