Spontaneous Ordering of Arrays of Coherent Strained Islands

Controlling the quantum dot nucleation site

“…At this point the pyramids attract atoms from the 2D islands and the formation of a 'dome' occurs with an abrupt transition. These findings are in agreement with the theoretical predictions of Shchukin et al [45]. It has been also verified [46] that the island nucleation and evolution is independent from the growth method.…”

Coherent Stranski-Krastanov growth in 1+1 dimensions with anharmonic interactions: An equilibrium study

“…The first is the use of the linear theory of elasticity in order to compute the strain contribution to the total energy of the islands. 9,10,28,[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40] However, the validity of the latter is hard to accept, bearing in mind the high values of the lattice mismatch. As will be shown below, the MDs differ drastically in compressed and expanded films.…”

“…This is equivalent to the assumption that the substrate ͑the wetting layer͒ wets the 3D islands completely. 28,[31][32][33][35][36][37][38][39] In fact this assumption rules out 3D islanding from a thermodynamic point of view as 3D islands are only possible at incomplete wetting, or, in other words, when the interfacial energy is greater than zero. 8,[41][42][43][44] As shown below, the adhesion of the atoms to the wetting layer is also distributed along the island in addition to the strain distribution and plays a more significant role than the latter.…”

Mechanism of stress relaxation in Ge nanocrystals embedded in SiO2

“…Fundamental understanding of these stresses has been used for precise bandgap engineering, 1 device performance enhancement, 2 size distribution control, 3 and self-organization of island arrays. 4 Similarly, significant stresses have been observed after three-dimensional (3-D) growth of embedded nanocrystals. 5,6 However, stress generation and relief mechanisms in these 3-D systems are not as well understood.…”