title: Breaking elastic field symmetry with substrate vicinality.
abstract: We present a novel approach to engineer the growth of strained epitaxial films based on tailoring the elastic-interaction potential between nanostructures with substrate vicinality. By modeling the island-island interaction energy surface within continuum elasticity theory, we find that its fourfold symmetry is broken at high miscuts, producing directions of reduced elastic-interaction energy. As a consequence, it is possible to direct the Ge island growth on highly misoriented Si(001) substrates towards desired pathways.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, Via della Ricerca Scientifica, 1-00133 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Persichetti
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sgarlata
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fanfoni
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Balzarotti