The conditions for selected area molecular beam epitaxial growth of GaAs nanoscale crystals on Si(100) were studied. Growth was confined to arrays of nanometer‐sized pores patterned in a SiO 2 mask that provided exposure to the Si surface underneath. A model was developed to describe the growth process based on the probability of adatoms forming stable nuclei on the SiO 2 /Si surface. This model was applied to the growth of well‐ordered arrays of GaAs nanocrystals with dimensions as small as 20 nm. High‐resolution transmission electron microscopy imaging and Fourier analysis revealed defect‐free arrays of 25 nm nanocrystals. These results demonstrate how to prepare GaAs nanocrystals with a sub‐25 nm diameter on Si(100) that avoids misfit defect formation.
Savelyev et al. (Thu,) studied this question.