Gigantic uphill diffusion during self-assembled growth of Ge quantum dots on strained SiGe sublayers

Raman spectroscopy and atomic-force microscopy were applied to study the morphology of nanoislands grown on strained Si1−xGex sublayers. It was shown that the growth of nanoislands on strained Si1−xGex sublayer not only induces the effect of their spatial ordering but also enhances the role of interdiffusion processes. Unusual high island volume increase during the epitaxy is explained by anomalous strong material diffusion from the sublayer into the islands, induced by nonuniform field of elastic strains.