System and method for fabricating a crystalline thin structure

A method of growing a crystalline film of a semiconductor material, comprising:

• providing a substrate that includes a growth region on which the crystalline film will be formed;
• providing a vessel containing a solution of dissolved molecules of the semiconductor material, the solution having a free surface;
• submerging the entirety of the growth region in the solution so that a meniscus forms between said free surface and the growth region;
• establishing an initial lateral seed front on the growth region;
• and
• moving the meniscus relative to the growth region by mechanical means or by evaporation of solution from the vessel so as to substantially continuously free the substrate from the solution and substantially continuously grow the crystalline film on the growth region therealong by first adding ones of the dissolved molecules to the initial lateral seed front to create a lateral growth front and then continually adding more of the dissolved molecules to the lateral growth front.