Droplet destabilization during Bi catalyzed vapor-liquuid-solid growth of GaAs

GaAs nanodiscs are grown in a molecular beam epitaxy chamber via the vapor-liquid-solid mechanism with liquid Bi as the catalyst. Each nanostructure consists of a series of increasingly larger overlapping discs. The structure forms during deposition due to the fact that the catalyst grows until reaching a critical size whereupon it destabilizes, dropping off the disc onto the substrate, where it catalyzes the growth of a new disc of larger radius. It is shown that critical size is limited by the sidewall wetting with a contact angle significantly smaller than the Gibb's criterion.