Establishing Epitaxial Connectedness in Multi‐Stacking: The Survival of Thru‐Holes in Thru‐Hole Epitaxy

Abstract

Thru‐hole epitaxy has recently been reported to be able to grow readily detachable domains crystallographically aligned with the underlying substrate over 2D mask material transferred onto a substrate. [Jang et al., Adv. Mater. Interfaces 2023, 10, 2201406] While the experimental demonstration of thru‐hole epitaxy of GaN over multiple stacks of h‐BN was evident, the detailed mechanism of how small holes in each stack of h‐BN survived as thru‐holes during multiple stacking of h‐BN was not intuitively clear. Here, Monte Carlo simulations is used to investigate the conditions under which holes in each stack of 2D mask layers can survive as thru‐holes during multiple stacking. If holes are highly anisotropic in shape by connecting smaller holes in a particular direction, thru‐holes can be maintained with a high survival rate per stack, establishing more epitaxial connectedness. Our work verifies and supports that thru‐hole epitaxy is attributed to the epitaxial connectedness established by thru‐holes surviving even through multiple stacks.