Modification of Stranski–Krastanov growth on the surface of nanowires

The heteroepitaxial growth of strained islands on a planar substrate offers an attractive route to the fabrication of quantum dots (QDs). To obtain more functions and superior properties, recent efforts have focused on using nanowires (NWs) as substrates to produce attractive structures that combine QDs with NWs. As the lateral size of an NW is large, it is possible that islands are formed on the side walls of the NW. However, no islands exist, and the lateral surface is rather smooth in thin, core–shell NWs. The existing theoretical models on the growth on planar and patterned substrates are not appropriate for the growth transition on the surface with nanoscale curvature. We thus urgently need to understand the basic physics involved in the strain-induced growth on the surface with nanoscale curvature. Here, we established a theoretical model to study the strain-induced growth on the surface, which showed that the Stranski–Krastanov (SK) mode can change to the Frank–van der Mer...

Xinlei Li and Guowei Yang

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