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Researchers have demonstrated a way to control where crystals begin growing inside a patterned region—a step beyond simply deciding where semiconductor material may grow. The method, called etching-flux-mediated single-centred nucleation (EF-SCN), uses oxygen released from an oxide barrier to suppress nucleation near the region’s edges, leaving a preferred starting area near its center. The team demonstrated it with molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂), a two-dimensional semiconductor studied for future electronic devices.
Why the starting point of a crystal matters
In area-selective growth, a substrate pattern can define where material is allowed to form. But that does not necessarily determine where a crystal starts within the permitted region. If crystals begin at several locations, they can grow toward one another; the boundaries where they meet may affect material and device uniformity.
EF-SCN addresses this separate placement problem. Rather than only marking a growth region, it aims to shape the probability of nucleation within that region—controlling not just where material grows, but where a crystal begins.
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The researchers patterned oxide barriers around growth regions and used metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) to grow monolayer MoS₂. Oxygen released from the oxide creates a lateral etching flux. That flux suppresses nucleation close to the patterned boundary, making the area near the geometric center more favorable for a nucleus to form.
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The study used hafnium oxide barriers primarily and also examined zirconium oxide in some experiments. It describes patterned substrates including sapphire and amorphous silicon dioxide. The approach is called single-centred nucleation because it is designed to localize a single starting event, rather than leave nucleation positions random across the permitted area.
What the study demonstrated
- Single-crystal growth: The paper reports MoS₂ single crystals at the 10-micrometer scale.
- Control over nucleus count: By varying growth-region dimensions, process time, and CVD conditions, the researchers describe design rules for producing zero, one, or multiple nuclei.
- Reported device performance: Field-effect mobility reached up to 117 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ in devices made with EF-SCN-grown single-crystal MoS₂. This is a result from the study, not a guarantee of performance in a manufactured chip.
- Reported yield: The authors report a single-crystal yield exceeding 99% in their large-area demonstration. This is an experimental result, not a validated commercial wafer yield.
- Integration demonstrations: The team integrated multiple field-effect transistors within a single crystal and demonstrated lateral heterostructures. These are materials and device demonstrations, not complete production chips.
A separate report described 397 single crystals among 400 patterned sites on a two-centimeter substrate, or 99.3%. That site count is the report’s formulation; it should not be treated as interchangeable with the Nature paper’s own statement that yield exceeded 99%, or as evidence of production-scale yield.
How the reported process conditions should be read
The Nature paper reports growth at 430 °C as a low-temperature result. Its methods cover a broader experimental range: 430–800 °C, pressure of 1–20 torr, and process times of 200–3,000 seconds. These ranges describe the study’s laboratory experiments, not a single recipe or a ready-to-run manufacturing process.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsThe temperature and process window matter because they show the method was explored under varied conditions. They do not establish that the same results will transfer unchanged to different substrates, equipment, wafer sizes, or production environments.
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What this means for future chips—and what it does not
More precise control of nucleation could help researchers build 2D semiconductor layouts with intentionally placed crystals, including line-shaped crystals, multiple transistors on one crystal, and aligned lateral heterostructures. The work therefore advances a materials-growth capability that may be useful for future device integration.
It does not establish that EF-SCN is being used in commercial chip production, provide a validated manufacturing yield, or confirm a production schedule. A report attributes an approximate 2030 commercial-use target to TDS Innovation; that is a company expectation, not an independently verified forecast or commitment. The Nature paper’s competing-interests disclosure identifies co-author Kibum Kang as a TDS Innovation co-founder, CEO, and equity holder, which is relevant context for that commercial outlook.
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Sources
- Nature research article, published 7 October 2026
- Nature news coverage
- KAIST lab listing
- The Register report on the site count and company target
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