ON THE ATOMISTIC AND KINETIC NATURE OF STRAINED EPITAXY AND FORMATIONOF COHERENT 3D ISLAND QUANTUM BOXES

Some remarkable recent results of the in situ scanning tunneling micro scope (STM) and atomic force microscope (AFM) studies of InAs coherent 3D island initiation and evolution on GaAs(001) are presented in the larger context of the field of strained epitaxy. The role of nano and meso scale mesas in manipulating stress/strain is illustrated through examples of growths on in sim, purely growth control prepared stripe a nd square mesas with linear dimensions as small as similar to 40 nm. A set of basic kinetic processes and their strain dependence is identif ied and suggested to form a good core that has the potential for provi ding a unified framework for understanding strained epitaxy ranging fr om low misfits to high misfits. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.