Creating Three-Dimensionally Confined Nanoscale Strained Structures Via Substrate Encoded Size-Reducing Epitaxy and the Enhancement of Critical Thickness for Island Formation
ABSTRACTSubstrate encoded size-reducing epitaxy (SESRE) is utilized to fabricate, in-situ, threedimensionally confined InAs volumes on <100> oriented square mesas patterned onto GaAs(001) substrates. As a function of InAs deposition thickness two remarkable results are found: (i) the strain relief available in mesas of linear size ≤ 100 nm allows the mesa top InAs layers up to thickness ∼ 11 ML to remain coherent and maintain 2D morphology even though on unpatterned substrates onset of 3D island formation at ∼ 2 ML InAs is well documented. (ii) With increasing deposition, once the InAs thickness on mesa tops of linear size ∼ 75 nrn reaches ∼ 11 ML, no further growth occurs even for deposition amounts in excess of twice this value. This suggests complete migration of In away from the mesa top to the sidewalls once the InAs thickness on the mesa top reaches ∼ 11 ML even though, at the early stages of deposition, In migrates from the sidewalls to the mesa top. A strain-induced “self-limiting” growth behavior on sub 100nm mesas is thus indicated for the first time.