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Phys. Rev. B 68, 115301 (2003) [6 pages]

Prepyramid-to-pyramid transition of SiGe islands on Si(001)

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A. Rastelli1,*, H. Von Känel2,3, B. J. Spencer4, and J. Tersoff5
1INFM and Dipartimento di Fisica “A. Volta,” Università Degli Studi di Pavia, Via Bassi 6, I-27100 Pavia, Italy
2ETH Zürich, Laboratorium für Festkörperphysik, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland
3INFM and L-NESS, Dipartimento di Fisica del Politecnico di Milano, Polo Regionale di Como, Via Anzani 52, I-22100 Como, Italy
4Department of Mathematics, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York 14260-2900, USA
5IBM Research Division, T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, USA

Received 28 February 2003; published 5 September 2003

The morphology of the first three-dimensional islands appearing during strained growth of SiGe alloys on Si(001) was investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy. High resolution images of individual islands and a statistical analysis of island shapes were used to reconstruct the evolution of the island shape as a function of size. As they grow, islands undergo a transition from completely unfacetted rough mounds (prepyramids) to partially {105} facetted islands and then they gradually evolve to {105} facetted pyramids. The results are in good agreement with the predictions of a recently proposed theoretical model.

© 2003 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.68.115301
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevB.68.115301
PACS:
68.35.Bs, 68.37.Ef, 68.55.-a

*Present address: Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung, Heisenbergstrasse 1, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany. Electronic address: A.Rastelli@fkf.mpg.de

 
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