Equilibrium and metastable states of nanoislands in multilayered Stranski-Krastanow systems

In this paper, we analyze the total-energy change during the formation of a nanoisland on multilayered Stranski-Krastanow (SK) systems containing an embedded nanostructure. The energy analyses show that when the film thickness is in the vicinity of the critical value for the SK transition, the embedded nanostructure can induce an equilibrium or metastable state in which the top nanoisland is stable against size variations. The two states are a general feature of the SK systems that can be utilized to fabricate uniform stable arrays of nanoislands.