Quantum wires and quantum dots grown on nonplanar substrates

Abstract

Epitaxial growth on nonplanar substrates provides a powerful approach for producing high quality laterally-confined semiconductor nanostructures. In this technique, nonplanar surface features prepared using lithography serve as seeds for the formation of self-limiting nonplanar profiles, whose details depend only on the growth parameters. Lower bandgap layers deposited on these nonplanar, self-limiting surfaces can then yield a variety of laterally-confined structures such as quantum wires, quantum dots, vertical quantum wells and vertical quantum wires. This talk reviews recent progress achieved with such nanostructures grown by organometallic chemical vapor deposition, including the understanding of the self-ordering process involved, their electronic and optical properties, and their applications in optoelectronic devices.