Proceedings of nanoGe September Meeting 2015 (NFM15)
Publication date: 8th June 2015
Control of quantum dot (QD) precursor chemistry has been expected to help improve the size control and uniformity of III-V QDs such as indium phosphide and indium arsenide. Previous experimental results from the studies of the effect of precursor chemistry on II-VI QD growth are in agreement with theoretical predictions that the rate of precursor conversion is an important factor controlling QD size and size distribution. We synthesized and characterized the reactivity of a variety of group-V precursors in order to determine if precursor chemistry could be used to improve the quality of III-V QDs. Despite slowing down precursor conversion rate by multiple orders of magnitude, the less reactive precursors do not yield the expected increase in size and improvement in size distribution. This result is inconsistent with evidence from other QD systems and predictions of kinetic growth models and points to a shortcoming in the understanding of the mechanism of III-V QD formation and growth.