Dynamics of mass transport during nanohole drilling by local droplet etching.

Local droplet etching (LDE) utilizes metal droplets during molecular beam epitaxy for the self-assembled drilling of nanoholes into III/V semiconductor surfaces. An essential process during LDE is the removal of the deposited droplet material from its initial position during post-growth annealing. This paper studies the droplet material removal experimentally and discusses the results in terms of a simple model.