In situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction along with transmission
electron miscoscopy, atomic force microscopy, and photoluminescence spectr
oscopy have been used to investigate the Ge growth behavior in a standard G
e/Si multilayer structure. It is shown that the decrease of the Ge wetting
layer thicknesses in the upper layers of a multilayer structure is the main
parameter which leads to the increase of the island size and height. Such
an evolution of the Ge wetting layer thickness can be explained by an accum
ulation of elastic strain in the Si spacer layers induced by the lower Ge w
etting layers. This finding opens the route to the realization of a multila
yer structure in which the islands have equal size in all layers. [S0163-18
29(99)03132-X].