Control of strain-mediated growth kinetics of self-assembled semiconductor quantum dots

We study the heteroepitaxial growth of self-assembled quantum dots in strained semiconductors in the Stranski-Krastanov growth mode using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. The optimization of growth parameters such as temperature, deposition rate, coverage, and growth interruption time, and the influence of anisotropic diffusion is discussed in detail, contrasting the kinetically controlled versus the thermodynamically limited regime. It is shown that narrow size distributions and good spatial ordering can be achieved for intermediate temperatures and deposition rates, and at coverages above the wetting layer of about 30%.