Formation of nanometer-scale InAs islands on silicon

Three dimensional islands of InAs have been grown on Si (100) by using mole cular-beam epitaxy to obtain nanometer-scale quantum dots. Morphological ex amination by atomic force microscopy revealed the formation of islands with narrow size distributions and high densities. For an approximate coverage of 1.2 monolayers of InAs beyond the growth mode transition, our observatio ns of a rapid evolution of island morphology are explained in terms of stra in relaxing mechanisms in the early stages of InAs/Si heteroepitaxy.