Study of growth properties of InAs islands on patterned InP substrates defined by focused ion beam

• Published in: Physica. E, Low-dimensional systems & nanostructures Vol. 87; pp. 59 - 67
• Main Authors: Ribeiro-Andrade, R., Malachias, A., Miquita, D.R., Vasconcelos, T.L., Kawabata, R., Pires, M.P., Souza, P.L., Rodrigues, W.N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.03.2017
• Subjects: Arsenates; Growth models; Metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy; Nanostructures; Nucleation; X-ray diffraction; X-ray diffraction; Nucleation; Nanostructures; Metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy; Arsenates; Growth models
• ISSN: 1386-9477; 1873-1759
• DOI: 10.1016/j.physe.2016.11.011

This work describes morphological and crystalline properties of the InAs islands grown on templates created by focused ion beam (FIB) on indium phosphide (InP) substrates. Regular arrangements of shallow holes are created on the InP (001) surfaces, acting as preferential nucleation sites for InAs islands grown by Metal-Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy. Ion doses ranging from 1015 to 1016 Ga+/cm2 were used and islands were grown for two sub-monolayer coverages. We observe the formation of clusters in the inner surfaces of the FIB produced cavities and show that for low doses templates the nanostructures are mainly coherent while templates created with large ion doses lead to the growth of incoherent islands with larger island density. The modified island growth is described by a simple model based on the surface potential and the net adatom flow to the cavities. We observe that obtained morphologies result from a competition between coarsening and coalescence mechanisms. •Site selective growth of InAs islands in templates created by focused ion beam on indium phosphide (InP) substrates.•Investigation of morphological and crystalline properties of the InAs islands grown on templates created by focused ion beam.•The InAs has been formed by clusters in the inner surfaces of the FIB produced cavities.•On LD samples the reduced number of surface defects and the smaller cavity size favors island coarsening.•A simple model was proposed to correlate the chemical potential of the modified surface and the flow of adatoms.