Selective Growth of InAs Quantum Dots on GaAs driven by As kinetics

In this paper we examine experimentally and theoretically how the As flux direction and intensity influences the recently observed selective growth of InAs quantum dots on the rippled surface of GaAs, where the dots line up only against well determined slopes of the mounded GaAs surface facing the impinging Arsenic flux. We have previously shown that the observed phenomenon is exclusively related to the As constituent, challenging the widespread belief that As plays only a minor role in the dot formation. The selective growth is obtained by Molecular Beam Epitaxy at high growth temperature and under a high As/In flux ratio. To interpret the experimental results, we use a newly developed kinetic model incorporating new features: (i) anions are explicitly considered; (ii) cations and anions follow a different kinetics; (iii) the dot surface is distinguished by the dot bulk and atoms are transferred back and forth between the two phases depending on the surface interaction with the environment. We find that even a very small difference in the As flux intensity impinging over two substrate regions produces a cation current flow from one region to the other, so that the dots form only on the region exposed to the largest flux.