Study of Size, Shape, and Etch pit formation in InAs/InP Droplet Epitaxy Quantum Dots

We investigated metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy grown droplet epitaxy (DE) and Stranski–Krastanov (SK) InAs/InP quantum dots (QDs) by cross-sectional scanning tunneling microscopy (X-STM). We present an atomic-scale comparison of structural characteristics of QDs grown by both growth methods proving that the DE yields more uniform and shape symmetric QDs. Both DE and SKQDs are found to be truncated pyramid-shaped with a large and sharp top facet. We report the formation of localized etch pits for the first time in InAs/InP DEQDs with atomic resolution. We discuss the droplet etching mechanism in detail to understand the formation of etch pits underneath the DEQDs. A summary of the effect of etch pit size and position on fine structure splitting (FSS) is provided via the k · p theory. Finite element (FE) simulations are performed to fit the experimental outward relaxation and lattice constant profiles of the cleaved QDs. The composition of QDs is estimated to be pure InAs obtained by combining both FE simulations and X-STM results. The preferential formation of {136} and
{122} side facets was observed for the DEQDs. The formation of a DE wetting layer from As-P surface exchange is compared with the standard SKQDs wetting layer. The detailed structural characterization performed in this work provides valuable feedback for further growth optimization to obtain QDs with even lower FSS for applications in quantum technology.