Precise semiconductor nanotubes and nanocorrugated quantum systems

A concept in precise nanostructuring permitting the formation of solid-state nanoshells of various shapes from monocrystalline InGaAs/GaAs or Si/GeSi strained heterofilms, or from metal–semiconductor, metal–metal and hybrid films is outlined. Ultra-thin strained films released from the massive substrate tend to acquire a new equilibrium shape for which their elastic energy is minimal. Bending off from the substrate or rolling into cylindrical objects, the films form nanotubes, rings, helices, open and closed 3D nanoshells and their ordered arrays. The present work focuses on the set of newly proposed methods and realized processes constituting a fabrication technology for these free-standing precise nanoobjects and systems. New results on the formation of spatially periodic structures, nanocorrugated systems, shells with the minimum radius of curvature of ∼1 nm, and assembling these shells in even more complex architectures, for example, quantum-dots molecules, are described. The fabricated nanoshells offer much promise as building blocks for nanoelectronic and nanomechanic devices, their fabrication technology being quite compatible with the well-established integrated-circuit technology.