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Heteroepitaxy of materials with a high lattice mismatch offers the possibility
to grow compound structures with novel properties. The grown layers may
either wet the surface or self-assemble into electron-confining structures,
such as quantum dots (QDs) or quantum wires (QWs), which may be used as
building blocks for new optoelectronic technologies.
The growth of thin Ge layers on highly oriented pyrolitic graphite (HOPG)
represents a model system in crystal growth. Since Ge is lattice matched
to GaAs, developing the ability to grow thin flat Ge films would yield
substrates to be used for the growth of III–V layers. On the other
hand, because of the high lattice mismatch and low chemical affinity,
Ge is very likely to grow in the form of nanosized clusters with interesting
optical properties. The goal of the project consists in comparing the
growth of Ge on HOPG by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and PLD.
Operating the PLD chamber.
Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) phase image
of a nonostructured film of Ge deposited on HOPG by PLD. Image dimensions:
2.65 µm X 2.65 µm. |
