Kinetic Monte Carlo simulation of self-organized growth of PbSe/PbEuTe quantum dot multilayers

Abstract

The heteroepitaxial growth in self-assembled quantum dot multilayers is investigated using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations and a quantitative comparison with experiment is included. We study the self-organization effect in the PbSe/PbEuTe(111) semiconductor system. For this purpose we developed an efficient kinetic Monte Carlo model enabling us to simulate multilayers consisting of tens of periods with hundreds of three-dimensional islands. We corroborate that the lateral and vertical-dot correlations are caused mainly by the strain field induced by buried dots. A progressive self-ordering from period to period in a growing multilayer is clearly illustrated. We also reproduced all three experimentally observed dot arrangements in the PbSe/PbEuTe(111) superlattices inclusive of two abrupt transitions between them. Moreover, we achieved a good quantitative agreement with the experimentally measured dependence of lateral-dot distance on spacer-layer thickness. The advantages and shortcomings of our model are analyzed in detail.