Equilibrium shape of SiGe Stranski–Krastanow islands on silicon grown by liquid phase epitaxy

SiGe Stranski–Krastanow islands coherently grown on Si(001) substrates by liquid phase epitaxy are typically made of truncated pyramids with {111} side facets, whereas the persistent presence of an (001) top facet indicates an energetical disadvantage of complete pyramids compared to truncated ones....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2004-06, Vol.84 (25), p.5228-5230
Main Authors: Hanke, M., Schmidbauer, M., Köhler, R., Syrowatka, F., Gerlitzke, A.-K., Boeck, T.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:SiGe Stranski–Krastanow islands coherently grown on Si(001) substrates by liquid phase epitaxy are typically made of truncated pyramids with {111} side facets, whereas the persistent presence of an (001) top facet indicates an energetical disadvantage of complete pyramids compared to truncated ones. We attribute this to a surface minimization process during the island evolution under the assumption of isotropically distributed surface energies and stable island facets. For the presence of {111} side facets we have theoretically derived a final geometrical aspect ratio of island base versus island height of 1.96, which is in excellent agreement with the experimentally derived averaged value of 2.08±0.10 within a concentration window between 9% and 30% germanium.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.1759070