title: Interrupted self-organization of SiGe pyramids.
abstract: We investigate the morphological evolution of SiGe quantum dots deposited on Si(100) during long-time annealing. At low strain, the dots' self-organization begins by an instability and interrupts when (105) pyramids form. This evolution and the resulting island density are quantified by molecular-beam epitaxy. A kinetic model accounting for elasticity, wetting, and anisotropy is shown to reproduce well the experimental findings with appropriate wetting parameters. In this nucleationless regime, a mean-field kinetic analysis explains the existence of nearly stationary states by the vanishing of the coarsening driving force. The island size distribution follows in both experiments and theory the scaling law associated with a single characteristic length scale.
authors.affiliation: Institut des Nanosciences de Paris, Université Pierre et Marie Curie Paris 6 and CNRS UMR 7588, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris, France. aqua@insp.jussieu.fr
authors.forename: Jean-Noël
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Aqua
authors.forename: Adrien
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gouyé
authors.forename: Antoine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ronda
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Frisch
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Berbezier