Si 0.8 Ge 0.2 heteroepitaxy on vicinal Si͑1 1 10͒ substrates leads to the formation of a nanoscale ripple morphology. Atomic force microscopy, and grazing incidence small angle x-ray scattering reveal that these SiGe structures are essentially prisms of triangular cross section bounded by two adjacent ͕105͖ facets. Transmission electron microscopy shows the existence of a wetting layer. X-ray diffraction in combination with finite element simulations was performed to extract strain distribution maps. The stabilization of the prism structure is attributed to the strain-dependence of the ͕105͖ surface energy.
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