The commonly accepted Stranski-Krastanow model, according to which island formation occurs on top of a wetting layer ͑WL͒ of a certain thickness, predicts for the morphological evolution an increasing island aspect ratio with volume. We report on an apparent violation of this thermodynamic understanding of island growth with deposition. In order to investigate the actual onset of three-dimensional islanding and the critical WL thickness in the Ge/Si͑001͒ system, a key issue is controlling the Ge deposition with extremely high resolution ͓0.025 monolayer ͑ML͔͒. Atomic force microscopy and photoluminescence measurements on samples covering the deposition range 1.75-6.1 ML, taken along a Ge deposition gradient on 4 in. Si substrates and at different growth temperatures ͑T g ͒, surprisingly reveal that for T g Ͼ 675°C steeper multifaceted domes apparently nucleate prior to shallow ͕105͖-faceted pyramids, in a narrow commonly overlooked deposition range. The puzzling experimental findings are explained by a quantitative modeling of the total energy with deposition. We accurately matched ab initio calculations of layer and surface energies to finite-element method simulations of the elastic energy in islands, in order to compare the thermodynamic stability of different island shapes with respect to an increasing WL thickness. Close agreement between modeling and experiments is found, pointing out that the sizeable progressive lowering of the surface energy in the first few MLs of the WL reverts the common understanding of the SK growth onset. Strong similarities between islanding in SiGe and III/V systems are highlighted.

For advanced electronic, optoelectronic, or mechanical nanoscale devices a detailed understanding of their structural properties and in particular the strain state within their active region is of utmost importance. We demonstrate that X-ray nanodiffraction represents an excellent tool to investigate the internal structure of such devices in a nondestructive way by using a focused synchotron X-ray beam with a diameter of 400 nm. We show results on the strain fields in and around a single SiGe island, which serves as stressor for the Si-channel in a fully functioning Si–metal–oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor.

Ferromagnetic Ge1−xMnxTe grown by molecular beam epitaxy with Mn content of xMn≈0.5 is shown to exhibit a strong tendency for phase separation. At higher growth temperatures apart from the cubic Ge0.5Mn0.5Te, a hexagonal MnTe and a rhombohedral distorted Ge0.83Mn0.17Te phase is formed. This coexistence of antiferromagnetic MnTe and ferromagnetic Ge0.5Mn0.5Te results in magnetic exchange-bias effects.

The peak positions in photoluminescence spectra of Ge wetting layers (WL) deposited at 700 °C were measured versus the Ge coverage with an extremely high relative resolution of 0.025 monolayers. A nearly linear redshift of the peaks with increasing Ge coverage is observed. We derived quantitative WL composition profiles by fitting this shift, and its dependence on the deposition temperature of the capping layer (Tc), to results of band structure calculations. Despite the high growth temperature, the Ge content in the WL exceeds 80%. It is shown that the composition profile is dominated by surface segregation of Ge on Si.

The authors report on the fabrication and detailed structural characterization of ordered arrays of vertically stacked SiGe/Si(001) island pairs. By a proper choice of growth parameters, islands which have both large sizes and high Ge fraction are obtained in the upper layer. Finite element method calculations of the strain distribution reveal that (i) the Si spacer between a pair of islands can act as a lateral quantum dot molecule made of four nearby dots for electrons and (ii) the tensile strain in a Si cap deposited on top of the stack is significantly enhanced with respect to a single layer.