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Self‐Ordering of Ge Islands on Si Substrates Mediated by Local Strain Fields
Author(s) -
Brunner K.,
Zhu J.,
Abstreiter G.,
Kienzle O.,
Ernst F.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
physica status solidi (b)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1521-3951
pISSN - 0370-1972
DOI - 10.1002/1521-3951(200103)224:2<531::aid-pssb531>3.0.co;2-2
Subject(s) - vicinal , materials science , strain (injury) , condensed matter physics , self assembly , germanium , crystallography , nanotechnology , optoelectronics , silicon , physics , chemistry , medicine , quantum mechanics
We have fabricated linear chains and two‐dimensional arrays of Ge islands by self‐assembling and self‐ordering processes on vicinal Si substrates. Step bunches and stripe‐like strain fields caused by underlying Si/SiGe multilayers with periodic wire‐like accumulations at step edges induce an alignment of Ge islands. Repulsion of neighboring islands is caused by overlapping short‐ranged strain fields surrounding partially strain relaxed dots and defines a minimum island separation. A periodic array of wires forming within the multilayer serves as a self‐organized template for two‐dimensionally ordered Ge islands with a lateral period of 120 nm which is comparable to the island size.