The organization of coherent three-dimensional islands during the growth of SiGe/Si multilayers on Si(100) was investigated with cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy. Merging of islands of different initial size is found to be the dominant mechanism leading to a uniform size distribution. Upon overgrowth with Si, we observe a change of the shape of the islands from the {105}-faceted “hut” to a boxlike shape bounded on top by a (100) facet.

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Because the XTEM images are [110] cuts through the islands, the base size corresponds to the diagonal of the 〈100〉 aligned base of the pyramid-shaped huts.
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The island spacing is considered to be the distance between the center of two islands.
11.
We follow this simplified approach in spite of our observation that the shape of the overgrown islands is boxlike and not well approximated by a single sphere/point source of expansion. But, nevertheless, the physics of the island “interaction” can be understood using this simple model.
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