The effective thickness, temperature and growth rate behavior of quantum dot ensembles

A kinetic model for the stress driven formation of quantum dots is studied, incorporating the growth of wetting layer, the island nucleation and size relaxation. The derived dependences of the island size and density on the effective thickness, substrate temperature and growth rate provide a detailed characterization of the structural properties of quantum dots. It is shown that in the subcritical thickness range the structure of an ensemble is determined by the thermodynamics and in the overcritical thickness range is kinetically controlled.