Arrays of Ge islands on Si(001) grown by means of electron-beam pre-patterning

We show that well-defined arrays of self-assembled Ge dots on Si(001) can be grown after pre-patterning the Si surface by means of an electron beam. The electron beam produces C-containing growth masks. The overgrowth of these masks with Si results in pits at the Si surface, in and around which Ge dots nucleate selectively. A manifold of different arrays can be obtained. Almost perfect arrays of quadruples of dots nucleate in the intersections of the four {11n} facets. This way of producing quantum dot arrays is very promising for producing dot structures suitable for use in the study of, for instance, dot-dot tunnelling and related effects.