Lateral arrangement of self-assembled GaN islands on periodically stepped AlN surfaces

摘要

The organisation of GaN quantum dots on vicinal (0001) AlN surfaces has been investigated. Such surfaces were obtained using (0001)-misoriented SiC substrates. It is shown that AlN growth leads to a step bunching instability that can be kinetically controlled by temperature. The study of the GaN growth mechanism reveals a preferential alignment along AlN step edges and facets. Finally, the possibility of obtaining an efficient control of the island spatial distribution via step density and periodicity is demonstrated. [References: 10]