Eur. Phys. J. B (2012) 85: 37
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2011-20430-5

Regular Article

Influences of lattice mismatches on equilibrium morphologies and strain distributions of quantum dots

College of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310032, P.R. China

^a e-mail: zhouwm@zjut.edu.cn

Received: 6 June 2011
Received in final form: 6 October 2011
Published online: 23 January 2012

Abstract

The morphologies of quantum dots and distributions of stresses in and around quantum dots structures have a significant effect on photoelectric properties and electronic structures. Optical and electronic devices of different efficiencies based on quantum dots can be manufactured by choosing self-assembly of different materials to control epitaxial growth. In this article we investigate the equilibrium morphologies and the strain distributions of self-assembled pyramidal semiconductor quantum dots in Stranski-Krastanov growth mode based on the finite element method of the anisotropic theory of elasticity. We also give the equilibrium morphologies and the distribution of the stress and the strain, the hydrostatic strain and the biaxial strain for different lattice mismatched quantum dots. The results can serve as a basis for interpretation of experiments.