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Self-formation of hexagonal nanotemplates for growth of pyramidal quantum dots by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy on patterned substrates

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Abstract

We demonstrate the self-formation of hexagonal nanotemplates on GaAs (111)B substrates patterned with arrays of inverted tetrahedral pyramids during metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy and its role in producing high-symmetry, site-controlled quantum dots (QDs). By combining atomic force microscopy measurements on progressively thicker GaAs epitaxial layers with kinetic Monte Carlo growth simulations, we demonstrate self-maintained symmetry elevation of the QD formation sites from three-fold to six-fold symmetry. This symmetry elevation stems from adatom fluxes directed towards the high-curvature sites of the template, resulting in the formation of a fully three-dimensional hexagonal template after the deposition of relatively thin GaAs layers. We identified the growth conditions for consistently achieving a hexagonal pyramid bottom, which are useful for producing high-symmetry QDs for efficient generation of entangled photons.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Physics of Nanostructures, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Alessandro Surrente, Romain Carron, Pascal Gallo, Alok Rudra, Benjamin Dwir & Eli Kapon

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  1. Alessandro Surrente
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  2. Romain Carron
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  3. Pascal Gallo
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  4. Alok Rudra
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  5. Benjamin Dwir
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  6. Eli Kapon
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Correspondence to Eli Kapon.

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Self-formation of hexagonal nanotemplates for growth of pyramidal quantum dots by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy on patterned substrates

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Surrente, A., Carron, R., Gallo, P. et al. Self-formation of hexagonal nanotemplates for growth of pyramidal quantum dots by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy on patterned substrates. Nano Res. 9, 3279–3290 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-016-1206-7

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