Direct growth of III–V quantum dots on silicon substrates: structural and optical properties

This paper reports the recent progress obtained by direct growth of III–V semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) on flat and prepatterned silicon substrates. For the flat surfaces, we discuss the basic growth studies addressing mainly morphological and structural properties of QD-like structures using transmission electron microscopy. For the growth on prepatterned substrates, we report on the optimization of the electron beam lithography process to fabricate sub-100 nm holes in silicon and the MBE growth on prepatterned Si (1 0 0) surfaces. Finally, we report the observation of bright photoluminescence emissions from single InAs/GaAs QDs grown directly on flat silicon substrates.