Atomic force microscopy study of self-organized ZnCdSe nanostructures fabricated on the cleavage-induced GaAs 110/ surface

The self-organized nanostructures of Zn1yxCdxSe were fabricated on the 110.-oriented GaAs whose surface was obtained by cleaving under ultra high vacuum UHV.in the chamber of molecular beam epitaxy MBE.. The surface steps produced by cleaving process and the ridges transformed from the wetting layers are preferred nucleation sites for adatoms resulting in linearly arranged islands. Such ridges or step edges act as the sink of adatoms, inhibiting island nucleation to produce the depletion regions at both its sides. The orientation-dependent sticking coefficient of adatoms and dangling bonds at the step edges, and the periodic strain distributions on the ridges are suggested to account for the preferred nucleation of the islands. q1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.