Morphological evolution and lateral ordering of uniform SiGe/Si(0 0 1) islands

By investigating the morphological evolution during epitaxial growth of Ge on Si(0 0 1) substrates, we find that highly uniform distributions of islands can be obtained. The islands are no longer domes but they consist of barns, which are bounded by steeper facets. A detailed morphological analysis indicates the presence of facets at their base, which are not stable for Ge but for Si. Finally, we show that long-range ordering of highly uniform SiGe barns can be obtained when the growth is performed on patterned Si(0 0 1) substrates.