Growth of InAs quantum dots on vicinal GaAs(001) surfaces misoriented in the [010] direction

Abstract

Atomic-force microscopy (AFM) is used to study InAs quantum-dot structures grown by molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) on vicinal GaAs(001) surfaces misoriented in the [010] direction by 1, 2, 4, and 6°. 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 to achieve higher densities and more uniform ensembles of quantum dots, while simultaneously decreasing the probability of their coalescence.