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Science 3 December 1999:
Vol. 286. no. 5446, p. 1813
DOI: 10.1126/science.286.5446.1813d
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This Week in Science

One way to self-assemble quantum dots or nanocrystals on a surface is through strain. When there is sufficient crystallographic mismatch between a thin film several monolayers thick and its underlying substrate, the resulting strain can be relieved by rearrangements that create quantum dots. For germanium-silicon dots, low-volume pyramids and high-volume domes form, but the origin of these two size distributions has been unclear. Ross et al. (p. 1931) used a low-energy electron microscopic technique to look at the evolution of the dots in real time. The dots begin as square-based pyramids, and proceed through a series of metastable transition states before maturing into multifaceted dome-shaped dots.




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)