Self-assembling and ordering of Ge/Si quantum dots on flat and nanostructured surfaces

We have studied by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) the effect of step bunching on Ge/Si(111) epitaxy. We have verified that self-organization of Ge islands is greatly influenced by "step bunching" which arises from the flash-annealing procedure used to reconstruct the Si surface. Two different growth regimes arise: initially islands nucleate and evolve only at steps, up to complete ripening; subsequently the same evolution is observed on flat areas of the sample. The average distance between islands and steps is nearly constant, originating a single row of equally spaced islands, followed by other rows of islands in between. The exploitation of this phenomenon, which is governed by the surface diffusion length of Ge on Si (estimated from our data) and by the terrace width, constitutes one possible path to achieve self-organization of quantum dots.