Level-set simulation for the strain-driven sharpening of the island-size distribution during submonolayer heteroepitaxial growth

Rätsch, Christian; DeVita, Jason P.; Smereka, Peter

doi:10.1103/physrevb.80.155309

Cited by 15 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…This shows that the effect of elastic interactions is to both narrow the size distribution and reduce the average size of the islands. This is in agreement with the island dynamics simulation of Ratsch et al [3]. …”

Section: Submonolayer Growthsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…This approximation is similar to that used in Ref. [3]. For a procedure somewhat more faithful to the model introduced above, an alternative would be to use the techniques introduced in Ref.…”

Section: Local Energy Methodsmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…This recognizes the fact that, to a good approximation, these atoms diffuse independently on the surface of the film. This idea has been extended to heteroepitaxial growth, and used to perform simulations using the island dynamics formulation of a BCF-like model [1,2,3]. The approximation we have in mind is inspired by these simulations.…”

Section: Computational Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Kinetic Monte Carlo simulation of heteroepitaxial growth: Wetting layers, quantum dots, capping, and nanorings

Schulze

Smereka

2012

Phys. Rev. B

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A new kinetic Monte Carlo algorithm that efficiently accounts for elastic strain is presented and applied to study various phenomena that take place during heteroepitaxial growth. For example, it is demonstrated that faceted quantum dots occur via the layer-by-layer nucleation of pre-pyramids on top of a critical layer with faceting occurring by anisotropic surface diffusion. It is also shown that the dot growth is enhanced by the depletion of the critical layer which leaves behind a wetting layer. Capping simulations provide insight into the mechanisms behind dot erosion and ring formation. The algorithm used for the simulations presented here is based on the observation that adatom and dimer motion is essentially decoupled from the elastic field. This is exploited by decomposing the film into two parts: the weakly bonded portion and the strongly bonded portion. The weakly bonded portion is taken to evolve independent of the elastic field. In this way the elastic field need only be updated infrequently. Extensive validation reveals that there is little loss of fidelity but the algorithm is fifteen to twenty times faster.

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Section: Submonolayer Growthsupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Local Energy Methodsmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Computational Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Kinetic Monte Carlo simulation of heteroepitaxial growth: Wetting layers, quantum dots, capping, and nanorings

Schulze

Smereka

2012

Phys. Rev. B

Self Cite

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“…For heteroepitaxial growth, a lattice mismatch between the substrate and the crystalline form of the deposited material leads to strain buildup, and thus a significant energetic penalty for larger islands inhibiting their growth [40]. A simple strategy to model this behavior is to reduce the rate of the last adatom hop leading to aggregation in the PIM for larger islands by a factor of f(s)  1.…”

Section: Pim For Modified Nucleation and Growth Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Point island models for nucleation and growth of supported nanoclusters during surface deposition

Han

Gaudry

Evans

2016

The Journal of Chemical Physics

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Point island models (PIMs) are presented for the formation of supported nanoclusters (or islands) during deposition on flat crystalline substrates at lower submonolayer coverages. These models treat islands as occupying a single adsorption site, although carrying a label to track their size (i.e., they suppress island structure). However, they are particularly effective in describing the island size and spatial distributions. In fact, these PIMs provide fundamental insight into the key features for homogeneous nucleation and growth processes on surfaces. PIMs are also versatile being readily adapted to treat both diffusion-limited and attachment-limited growth, and also a variety of other nucleation processes with modified mechanisms. Their behavior is readily and precisely assessed by kinetic Monte Carlo simulation.

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“…Hereafter, the growth behavior with a growth exponent β > 1/2 is called "superepitaxial growth behavior." In the conventional kinetic theory, QDs are generally considered to grow via uphill mass transport of adatoms driven by the latticemismatch strain [189], which can be implemented well in KMC simulations [190][191][192][193][194]. In their KMC simulation of the heteroepitaxial growth (with the elastic property of the system similar to semiconductors) at a lattice mismatch of 5%, Ratsch et al [192] observed the formation of 3D islands that grow according to the super-epitaxial growth law…”

Section: Super-epitaxial Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-assembly of InAs quantum dots on GaAs(001) by molecular beam epitaxy

Jin

2015

Front. Phys.

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Currently, the nature of self-assembly of three-dimensional epitaxial islands or quantum dots (QDs) in a lattice-mismatched heteroepitaxial growth system, such as InAs/GaAs(001) and Ge/Si(001) as fabricated by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), is still puzzling. The purpose of this article is to discuss how the self-assembly of InAs QDs in MBE InAs/GaAs(001) should be properly understood in atomic scale. First, the conventional kinetic theories that have traditionally been used to interpret QD self-assembly in heteroepitaxial growth with a significant lattice mismatch are reviewed briefly by examining the literature of the past two decades. Second, based on their own experimental data, the authors point out that InAs QD self-assembly can proceed in distinctly different kinetic ways depending on the growth conditions and so cannot be framed within a universal kinetic theory, and, furthermore, that the process may be transient, or the time required for a QD to grow to maturity may be significantly short, which is obviously inconsistent with conventional kinetic theories. Third, the authors point out that, in all of these conventional theories, two well-established experimental observations have been overlooked: i) A large number of “floating” indium atoms are present on the growing surface in MBE InAs/GaAs(001); ii) an elastically strained InAs film on the GaAs(001) substrate should be mechanically unstable. These two well-established experimental facts may be highly relevant and should be taken into account in interpreting InAs QD formation. Finally, the authors speculate that the formation of an InAs QD is more likely to be a collective event involving a large number of both indium and arsenic atoms simultaneously or, alternatively, a morphological/structural transformation in which a single atomic InAs sheet is transformed into a three-dimensional InAs island, accompanied by the rehybridization from the sp 2-bonded to sp 3-bonded atomic configuration of both indium and arsenic elements in the heteroepitaxial growth system.

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Level-set simulation for the strain-driven sharpening of the island-size distribution during submonolayer heteroepitaxial growth

Cited by 15 publications

References 35 publications

Kinetic Monte Carlo simulation of heteroepitaxial growth: Wetting layers, quantum dots, capping, and nanorings

Kinetic Monte Carlo simulation of heteroepitaxial growth: Wetting layers, quantum dots, capping, and nanorings

Point island models for nucleation and growth of supported nanoclusters during surface deposition

Self-assembly of InAs quantum dots on GaAs(001) by molecular beam epitaxy

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