Nucleation versus instability race in strained films

Liu, Kailang; Berbézier, Isabelle; David, Thomas; Favre, Luc; Ronda, A.; Abbarchi, Marco; Voorhees, Peter W.; Aqua, Jean Noël

doi:10.1103/physrevmaterials.1.053402

Cited by 17 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Hence, we consider systems with (i) only hut islands, (ii) at a low island density (for a deposited thickness around 1 nm), and (iii) in the high-strain nucleation regime (for a Ge concentration larger than ∼ 60%). Indeed, (i) hut-islands have been extensively studied and are fully strained (as confirmed by the absence of MoirÃl' fringes on the TEM image) at opposed to the dome islands which are commonly relaxed ; (ii) a low density allows to have a higher level of correlation, well above the measurement noise ; (iii) the nucleation regime ensures a stochastic process as opposed to the ordering that could arise from the instability at work for low Ge concentration 39 .…”

Section: Clustering Between Islandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To rationalize these correlations, we analyse the nucleation at work when pure Ge is deposited 39 . As a first approximation, we consider that islands directly nucleate in (105) square-base pyramids with a side-angle θ * , which greatly simplifies the analysis without significantly altering the following results.…”

Section: Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One such experimental finding is the clustering of Ge quantum dots in their early stage of growth on Si 38 . It occurs in the stochastic nucleation regime 39 , and can not be related to the partial order of their instability-driven growth 40 . Spatial correlation between islands was not reported in the experimental literature of SiGe systems, see e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Capillary-driven elastic attraction between quantum dots

et al. 2019

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Section: Clustering Between Islandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Capillary-driven elastic attraction between quantum dots

et al. 2019

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“…Similarly to the formation of germanium islands on the bare silicon surface, − for constructing a theoretical model of growth of germanium quantum dots on the surface of silicon oxide, the change in free energy of the system during formation of an island should be defined.…”

Section: Theoretical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of Epitaxial Quantum Dots Formed by Volmer–Weber Growth Mechanism

Lozovoy

Коханенко

Dirko

et al. 2019

Crystal Growth & Design

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Germanium/silicon systems are among the most promising materials for development of current semiconductor electronics and photonics. Structures with germanium quantum dots on silicon are very interesting from the point of view of the creation of fast-speed transistors, photodetectors, and solar cells. The basic method of the synthesis of nanoislands is their self-organization in the process of molecular beam epitaxy. It was experimentally shown that ultrahigh surface densities (up to 1012–1013 cm–2) of nanometer-sized clusters may be achieved by deposition of germanium on oxidized rather than bare silicon surfaces. Nevertheless, this system with a thin layer of silicon oxide is poorly investigated. In this work, fundamental peculiarities of epitaxial formation and growth of quantum dots by the Volmer–Weber growth mechanism are considered. A kinetic model of nucleation and growth of three-dimensional islands by the Volmer–Weber mechanism based on the general nucleation theory is proposed for the first time. The developed model allows one to evaluate not only equilibrium values of a system with quantum dots (their average size and surface density), but also principally nonequilibrium parameters such as islands nucleation rate, size distribution function, and its time evolution. Dependencies of mean lateral size and surface density of Volmer–Weber quantum dots on the conditions of their synthesis (growth temperature and deposition rate) are obtained. The results of numerical simulations of Volmer–Weber growth for the Ge/SiO2/Si system show very good agreement with experimental data. The proposed theoretical model may be easily applied for other material systems where growth of islands by the Volmer–Weber mechanism is realized.

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“…The combination of these two factors determines such important quantities as the equilibrium and critical thicknesses of the two-dimensional wetting layer characterising the moment of transition from 2D to 3D growth [17,18,19]. In a theoretical analysis of the processes of nanostructure formation by the Stranski-Krastanow mechanism, it was usually assumed that the specific surface energies of the wetting layer and island faces are constant during growth [14,16,17,18,19,20,21]. However, a number of theoretical studies show that these values depend on the thickness of the two-dimensional layer [22,23,24,25,26,27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%