Coarsening dynamics of self-assembled quantum dots with elastic field interactions

Effects of elastic field interactions on coarsening behavior of hemispherical islands on a substrate are studied by means of the island growth model for the case where the total volume of islands is conserved after the deposition process has been stopped. Such elastic effects are due to the coherent misfit strain between the islands and the substrate. Large scale computer simulation results show that elastic effects begin to play important roles on coarsening when the average island radius reaches the size alpha/(\B \Q), where alpha is the capillary length, B the dimensionless elastic interaction strength, and Q the initial total supersaturation. It is also found that attractive elastic inter-island interactions (B > 0) lead to suppression of coarsening with sharp island radius distributions, whereas repulsive interactions (B < 0) accelerate coarsening with broadened island radius distribution. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.