Unreal Engine used to simulate the growth of nano-forest

    A group of scientists from Canada conducted a simulation of the growth of branched nanowires (nanotrees) in a very original way - instead of specialized scientific codes, they took a commercial game engine.

    Nanowires are crystalline structures with a diameter of the order of nanometers and a very large (unlimited) length. To describe the flow of current through such wires, quantum effects must be taken into account, which is why they are also called "quantum wires."

    Practical interest in them is related to the fact that they can be made from semiconductors, which means that pn junctions, transistors, and microcircuits can be organized on the basis of such nanowires. Quantum properties also allow their use in photovoltaic converters. Branched nanowires, or the so-called “nano-trees”, are even more hoped - it is possible to grow “nano-trees”, the branches of “trees” of which will be intertwined in a special way, forming a three-dimensional structure of the nanochip.

    One way to grow nanotrees is “sliding angle deposition” ( GLAD) In this method, nanowires crystallize on a substrate, which is blown by an inclined jet of vapor of the deposited substance. GLAD can be used to grow straight, helical and branched nanowires on a substrate. To obtain complex three-dimensional structures, it is necessary to control the kinetics of the growth of nanotrees, and at the moment, using computer simulation, this is much easier than experimentally.

    A group of scientists from Canada published an article, which describes the result of such calculations. They took the Unreal Development Kit as a calculation program, which gave them out-of-the-box Newtonian physics and a visualization tool. Researchers only need to set the rules by which nuclei are formed from the steam jet on the substrate, the rules by which wires grow, and the rules by which an already grown wire blocks the vapor flow, thus preventing the nucleation and growth of a crystal in a certain region of space.

    The results show a striking agreement with experiments conducted under similar conditions.

    Fig. 1. Comparison of calculated and experimentally obtained nanostructures (illustration from the original work).

    Fig. 2. Comparison of calculated and experimental X-ray diffraction patterns on nanostructures (illustration from the original work).

    The entire calculation with a volume of 1x1x2 μm 3 had a length of 200 thousand frames with an average calculation speed of about 100 fps on the Core i7-3930.

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