Kinetic Monte Carlo Simulations of Strain-Induced Nanopatterning on Hexagonal Surfaces

Guided self assembly of periodic arrays of quantum dots has recently emerged as an important research field not only to reduce component size and manufacturing cost but also to explore and apply quantum mechanical effects in novel nanodevices. The intention of this kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulation study is to investigate self-organized nanopatterning on hexagonal surfaces for relaxed periodic surface strain fields applied to Pt(111) epitaxy. The KMC model is a full diffusion bond-counting model including nearest neighbor as well as second-nearest neighbor interactions with an event catalogue consisting of 8989 events modeling the effect of the biaxial surface strain field. The strain dependence of the fcc site and the saddle point for a Pt adatom migrating on top of the Pt(111) surface is calculated using the embedded atom method. Both the valley and the saddle point energies show an excellent linear dependence on the strain. These results are applied in the KMC model. The surface strain in this study is caused by a hexagonal network of dislocations at the interface between the substrate and a mismatched epitaxial layer. How the selforganization of deposited atoms is influenced by the surface strain will be addressed.