In situ, atomic force microscope studies of the evolution of InAs three-dimensional islands on GaAs(001)

作者：Nobuhiko P. Kobayashi, T. Ramachandran, P. Chen, Anupam Madhukar · 发表于：Applied Physics Letters · 年份：1996 · DOI：10.1063/1.116580 · 被引用次数：228 · 研究领域：Semiconductor Quantum Structures and Devices、Semiconductor materials and devices、Electronic and Structural Properties of Oxides

The size evolution of molecular beam epitaxy-grown strained InAs three-dimensional (3D) islands on GaAs(001) is examined using in situ ultrahigh vacuum atomic force microscopy. Remarkably, just after the initiation of well-formed 3D islands at ∼1.57 ML InAs deposition, the lateral size dispersion and average value are found to first increase drastically with the smallest amount (∼0.05 ML) of additional InAs deposition and then decrease and saturate, indicating the onset of a natural tendency for size equalization, including through loss of material from the initially formed largest islands. These observations are found to be consistent with the previously suggested island-separation dependent influence of the evolving island-induced substrate strain fields on the adatom migration and incorporation/detachment kinetics that control the evolution of the islands.