GROWTH OF INAS QUANTUM DOTS ON VICINAL GAAS(001) SURFACES MISORIENTEDIN THE [010]DIRECTION

Atomic-force microscopy (AFM) is used to study InAs quantum-dot struct ures grown by molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) on vicinal GaAs(001) surfac es misoriented in the [010] direction by 1, 2, 4, and 6 degrees. It is shown for a chosen misorientation direction that a vicinal GaAs(010) surface is covered with a network of stepped terraces. The thickening of the network of terraces with increasing misorientation angle leads to the suppression of adatom surface diffusion and makes it possible t o achieve higher densities and more uniform ensembles of quantum dots, while simultaneously decreasing the probability of their coalescence. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.