Lateral control of self-assembled island nucleation by focused-ion-beam micropatterning

The focused-ion-beam micropatterning was used for the lateral control of self-assembled Ge islands on Si(001). The selective growth was achieved without modifying the initial surface topography at low doses of 6000 Ga+ ions per <100 nm spot. The topographic effects produced by sputtering and redeposition controlled the selective nucleation sites at larger doses.