STRAIN-INDUCED NANOSTRUCTURING ON SI(001) AND GE(001) SURFACES

The ability to create structures on a nanometer scale is and will be o f great fundamental and technological importance. Here I discuss a sim ple but elegant method, based on strain-induced self-assembling, to pr oduce an uniform nanowire pattern. The typical width of the nanowires can be varied between 8-12 Angstrom, whereas the averaged spacing betw een neighbouring nanowires can be varied in the range from 30 to 100 A ngstrom. This method can be applied to a wide range of adsorbates or e tching materials on group IV semiconductor (001) surfaces. Among them are Ni/Si(001), Bi/Si(001), Ge/Si(001), Ag/Si(001), Bi/Ge(001), H-2/Si (001), O-2/Si(001), Br-2/Si(001) and I-2/Si(001). Finally, the dramati c influence which strain relaxation can have on the formation of self- assembled nanostructures on surfaces is illustrated using the particul ar interesting Bi/Ge(001) system.