Microstructural evolution of GaSb self-assembled islands grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

Studies of the growth of GaSb self-assembled islands on GaAs and their morp hological evolution for varying GaSb coverage are presented. Islands had a mean height of 15 nm and planar dimensions of 60 by 130 nm. Evolution of th e island height, width and length shows that the island height and width in creases rapidly in the first 2 s and then stabilizes, while the island leng th increases linearly. This behavior is interpreted using the theory by Ter soff and Tromp [Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 2782 (1993)]. The volume growth was fo und to be initially faster than bulk growth. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(98)00935-8].