Nanostructured hybrid material based on highly mismatched III–V nanocrystals fully embedded in silicon

InAs quantum dots were directly grown on (100) planar silicon surfaces and embedded in a defect‐free silicon matrix after a multi‐step silicon overgrowth and annealing process performed by molecular beam epitaxy. Detailed high‐resolution transmission electron microscope investigations allow to follow within several steps the formation process of nearly fully relaxed InAs nanocrystals embedded in a defect‐free and planar silicon layer. The lattice mismatch between InAs and Si is almost fully accommodated by closed misfit dislocation loops at the III–V silicon interface, which suppresses the generation of threading dislocations in the embedding silicon matrix. InAs QDs embedded in defect‐free silicon.