Hyperuniform Monocrystalline Structures by Spinodal Solid-State Dewetting

Materials featuring anomalous suppression of density fluctuations over large length scales are emergingsystems known as disordered hyperuniform. The underlying hidden order renders them appealing forseveral applications, such as light management and topologically protected electronic states. Theseapplications require scalable fabrication, which is hard to achieve with available top-down approaches.Theoretically, it is known that spinodal decomposition can lead to disordered hyperuniform architectures.Spontaneous formation of stable patterns could thus be a viable path for the bottom-up fabrication of thesematerials. Here, we show that monocrystalline semiconductor-based structures, in particular Si_1−xGexlayers deposited on silicon-on-insulator substrates, can undergo spinodal solid-state dewetting featuringcorrelated disorder with an effective hyperuniform character. Nano- to micrometric sized structurestargeting specific morphologies and hyperuniform character can be obtained, proving the generality of theapproach and paving the way for technological applications of disordered hyperuniform metamaterials.Phase-field simulations explain the underlying nonlinear dynamics and the physical origin of the emergingpatterns.